Page 20

By Jack Joseph Smith

VIII Maybe he never did hear the legends of the dead singing yes After all there is a stance to make from underneath To leave the technologic and go to wrip the rush Herin inviting the lethal When Don walked into the furnal of my father's ash Where abouts my father was growing to it in his distance I knew that Don was the only one who represented the past Those old days on the Walbash River Let's get torn with where are kids with intercourse Torrent of the parapit, last sight of my rail Will tonight have sea or loss It will be Black Cod better than a whale Yelling atop as henchmen Scrub and a bouy too

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Legends of the dead and departure from the technologic lead to Don entering the furnal of the speaker's father's ash. Don represents the past and old Walbash River days; the closing lines ask about sea or loss and mention Black Cod, a whale, henchmen, and a bouy.

The father-and-Don stanza explicitly connects Don with the past. The later sea language may carry that loss onward, but the page does not identify Don's relationship to the father or establish a specific funeral scene.

Claude

Section 'VIII' begins with legends of 'the dead singing yes' and a wish 'To leave the technologic and go to wrip the rush,' then recalls 'When Don walked into the furnal of my father's ash,' Don being 'the only one who represented the past / Those old days on the Walbash River.' The last stanzas turn to the sea with 'Will tonight have sea or loss,' 'It will be Black Cod better than a whale,' and 'Scrub and a bouy too.'

The central stanza is the most direct on this run of pages, tying the father's ashes to Don and to a river past before the poem drifts back into fishing-boat language. The shift from grief to 'Black Cod' and 'henchmen' is abrupt, keeping the loss understated. Source spellings 'wrip,' 'Herin,' 'furnal,' 'parapit,' 'Walbash,' and 'bouy' are part of its texture.