By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The speaker questions killing and exclusion from Heaven, describes beauty and life as inadequate, and ends by claiming fearlessness and an origin in L.A.
The speaker moves from questions about violence and Heaven to an account of being a bastard child. The closing origin claim gives the speaker a position in the poem but does not verify an event in the author's life.
The speaker asks 'Is killing just about / which part of Heaven / you want to go to' and ends 'But I am not scared / I am a bastard child / from L.A.'.
The poem pairs questions about killing and beauty with a defiant self-description; the closing line is the speaker's claim within the poem.