By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The speaker gives conflicting instructions about hurt and childhood, then describes wildness, an opening of the self and being alone in America.
The speaker first says never to get hurt, then says yes to hurt. The unfinished cn't find line accompanies claims about America and war without naming what the speaker cannot find.
'Learn and poise' says 'Never get hurt' and then 'Yes get hurt', and ends 'Alone in America / Even places in war / can't tell'.
The poem reverses its own advice about pain, ending on isolation that war does not explain.