Page 77

By Jack Joseph Smith

When I walk across the room I feel him behind me When I curle iN thE pErfEct couNtry soNg of A big brAss bEd don't I know he is gone The tightness in my hips, But whEN all the sweetness has left, I do I always thought I had a belly Now my nipples are so hard That my middle has disappeared I accidently got cought in the Folkner drapes and I could not find my way out of the lovelyness Just a cut out of Cane I remember him; there is no brother, there is just sin My feet don't spring My but dosen't get a kick Out of a skirt in the wind

Original Scan

Page 77

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker feels him behind while walking, then curls into a handwritten image of a perfect country song and brass bed while knowing he is gone. Hips, nipples, a vanished middle, drapes, and a loss of bodily response accompany memories of him.

The handwritten revisions connect this closing page to the preceding country-song and brass-bed lines. The speaker contrasts a felt presence with his absence and changing bodily sensations. Folkner shares the accidently row's baseline and now follows it inline, but its intended attachment and case remain uncertain. Cane remains the typed spelling; these words do not establish a quotation or biographical claim.


Claude

The poem says 'When I walk across the room / I feel him behind me', adds the handwritten 'iN thE pErfEct couNtry soNg / of A big brAss bEd', 'don't' and 'But whEN all the sweetness has left, I do', and continues 'I accidently got cought in the Folkner / drapes' to 'I remember him; there is no / brother, there is just sin'.

The page revises page 076 by hand, and the closing lines turn memory into a statement about sin. The handwritten 'Folkner' shares the accidently row's baseline, so its attachment and case remain uncertain.