Page 37
By Jack Joseph Smith
I Was Looking At The Crossroads
And I knew it Could Not Be Found
By just about
J. B.
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The speaker looks at the crossroads and says they knew it could not be found.
The writer adds By just about and initials below the typed statement. The fragmentary attribution does not establish the signer's identity or a specific journey.
Two typed lines, 'I Was Looking At The Crossroads / And I knew it Could Not Be Found', are followed lower on the page by a handwritten attribution, 'By just about / J. B.'
The typed statement sets looking against a certainty that the thing sought cannot be found. The handwritten 'just about' qualifies the byline itself, giving the page a dry, self-deprecating close. The capitalized typed words give the couplet the look of a title or epigraph.