Page 185

By Jack Joseph Smith

a long faced goat. "Let my horns for a moment shine from Apollo's sun." Then he took a chair, and placed it in the mid- dle of the circle court. Glistening he looked, steadfast into the sun engaging time to be quiet, and as he began to soundless weep he wiped his cheeks for to turn to the young runaway. "This place is watched. Get out of here. It would be a mistake to be kind. Go to work for a Japanese gardener." The boy's plump face turned proportionate; without protest he left, and Animal filled the glasses with the light red wine... The good evening was upon them. Jiven Joe play- ing gutar, and singing show tunes; Porky and Bess, moving his hands like Al Jolson doing "I Got Plenty of Nothing." Doing it the way he liked. With his lips; Animal and Jaugeline were smashed; crashed; but for their eyes open from an inside laughter. Joe was strut'in, as if he were doing a benefit for thousands. And he was. When he entertained, his entire world of faces and times passed through his mind and sensations, as if he were both aud- ience and player to the flashbacks of the cinima.

Original Scan

Page 185

AI Interpretation

GPT

Joe tells the runaway to leave, then turns the patio evening into music and role-play, making warning, entertainment, and wounded memory part of the same performance.

The patio becomes a stage again, but the performance has an ethical edge. Joe's guitar, mimicry, and song are not just self-display; they are how he metabolizes danger, memory, and care without surrendering to sentimentality. This reading remains provisional because the right-margin handwriting still needs follow-up.

Claude

Joe tells the boy to leave and then turns the evening into music and role-play, showing how entertainment can be both refuge and deflection. The page handles dismissal with grace.