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By Jack Joseph Smith

The Belly Of course I know how to kill everybody Academic is what I am not, I always said, quit looking at your own age; They have me in the sight, the river changed again Whent for the better, went for the worse Did you ever see Anything different That would lose a rock you gave them As if gems were not important anymore No one is tough enough to be able to know when change was again a division in time, the same as Christ, one way for sure the end of a way; we had never noticed money going back and forth;

Original Scan

Page 38

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker rejects being academic, describes a river changing for better and worse, and considers rocks, gems, divisions in time and money passing back and forth.

The speaker places violent claims beside uncertainty about change and value. The references to Christ and age accompany that argument, but the page does not supply a definite chronology or verify a threat outside the poem.


Claude

'The Belly' opens 'Of course I know how to kill everybody', says 'Academic is what I am not', and reflects on change as 'a division / in time, the same as Christ'.

The speaker's bravado gives way to thoughts about change and money; the handwritten stroke through 'Whent' leaves that word provisional.