Page 17

By Jack Joseph Smith

VI Children like saints have always lived in the boldness of Middle Eastern men Possibly thinning the white man's fear to stay, or the black man's fear to go Neither done in the mind, he remained in space Drugs being the closest thing to Earth, it appeared that he was saying sirs, "go ahead and do your best" No avoidence of the yardarm, and not of the yoke Wild on the sea and burned in town squares Caught with paints down, and buying kids milk sailed from boats for his drunkeness, while on the sea his quickness was yearned for by a thousand crews There is magic against the breeze for dancing No motor or main sail keeps us down turned

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The page links children, saints, Middle Eastern men, fear, drugs, sea-going motion, and a sailor-like figure whose quickness is desired by crews.

With the typed body cleaned and the sailed replacement restored, the page reads as a compressed portrait of defiance and motion: yardarm, yoke, town square, boats, and sail all pull the figure between public punishment and maritime freedom.

Claude

A portrait of the middle-eastern sailor-saint whose quickness is yearned for by a thousand crews, paints down and buying kids milk, refusing yardarm and yoke — the page begins the long sailing sequence that pages 18–19 will recompose.