Page 25

By Jack Joseph Smith

The tails swap possibilities and positions with the wind, when there is any. There is no cleanliness in the tropics, but I never knew any as well while these kids down there are busy snatching us birds out of the sky. My growing up was more down to earth, swamp like. Then it was wavering around as prey too, but I had a different handle on it, if ya know what I mean. Now I am switched to the prehistoric I use to imagine in the sky, and just how fortunate those youngsters are down there. Now would anyone in a kind of black, or off white suit admit that I would trade places with this madness in a minute. I suppose not to be recom'ed with. You will be afraid of every alley when a cat with a lady Your thought can not try the transcendence in recklessness You will never be allowed to pass myth on to your children Strangled Your power is bound with the cord of unfulfilled laughter; and my being a misfit across the Serria Madra South Seas and elsewhere is worth it. Son

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker imagines trading places with youngsters who catch birds, then addresses a son about fear, myth and the cost of being a misfit.

The speaker recalls swamp-like childhood and a change toward prehistoric imagination. A handwritten alley, cat and lady passage interrupts that account before warnings about passing myth to children and power bound by unfulfilled laughter. South Seas and elsewhere extends the route beyond Serria Madra; an omitted marginal word leaves the alley passage incomplete.

Claude

A bird's-eye prose passage says 'There is no cleanliness in the tropics' while 'these kids down there / are busy snatching us birds out of the sky', and the speaker, now 'switched to the prehistoric', would 'trade places / with this madness in a minute'. Verse lines follow: 'You will never be allowed to pass myth on to your children' and 'my being a misfit across the Serria Madra South Seas and elsewhere / is worth it. Son'.

The prose voice is casual ('if ya know what I mean') and speaks as one of the hunted birds, which makes the envy of the youngsters wry. The later verse turns to direct address with warnings about fear, thought and power 'bound with the cord of unfulfilled laughter'. The final 'Son' recasts the warnings as words to a child.