By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Under the handwritten title A Pretace to Don, the speaker mentions Castro, a wife and Cubans held on a boat, then recounts the cost of a boat and a life. A diving-board image leads to work still to do.
The speaker gives the figure credit despite the account of confinement and loss. The final image turns from the price already paid to an unfinished task.
A handwritten preface draft: someone 'Took Castro, and took my wife too', 'Got Cubans in a boat, and would / not let them go', and 'Paid the price, first his / boat, then his life'. It grants him credit and ends with an image of 'Standing on the / diving board, throwing / a pass; there is more / work to do'.
The voice is terse and conversational, piling clauses joined by 'and' and commas into a quick account of loss and cost. The grudging 'got to give him credit / for that' turns the tally into respect, and the mixed diving-board and football image leaves the story deliberately open with 'more / work to do'.