Page 32
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Under the handwritten Colt Peace Maker heading, the speaker imagines billows, sea crossings and a fallen sail before considering God, dreams and waking after slaughter.
A scrub, bouy and thumb nail lead to billows compared with plums, squid and beads. Poets are called unbelievable before a question about liquor and a fallen sail. The raised typed sink and man fit the line about a different, perhaps man-made sink or hole; God, dreaming and slaughter bring the ending toward difficulty waking. A handwritten word after Exactly remains omitted.
Under the handwritten heading 'Colt Peace Maker,' the page moves from 'billows bursting like plums / To big to be squid fine enough to be beads' through seas that 'come pretending to be cayotes' and a question about hard liquor 'when a main sail went down.' It closes with 'In a different sink now, maybe man made, maybe a hole' and the claim 'we are not in a dream while we know we are dreaming,' ending 'Born with slaughter it is harder to wake.'
The heading names a revolver while the body stays at sea, pairing comic, off-balance similes with sinking and loss. Wry asides such as 'Like poets in general they are unbelievable' sit beside a turn toward God and dreaming. The ending moves from lightness to weight, making waking itself the difficulty.