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By Jack Joseph Smith

If Only the Whore's were their They went drinking at eleven in the morning It was March in Pennsylvania They hadn't seen each other for awhile and they smiled soberly as the car rolled along the cobblestone and trees Harry, Jack, and Dick From the town of Mount Lebanon where they didn't serve whiskey Down into the town of Castle Shannon they rode with Harry slowly at the wheel

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Harry, Jack and Dick reunite for morning drinking in March, riding from Mount Lebanon toward Castle Shannon.

Their sober smiles and Harry's slow driving keep the meeting quiet. They leave a town where whiskey is not served.

Claude

Under the typed title 'If Only the Whore's were their', three men, 'Harry, Jack, and Dick', go 'drinking at eleven in the morning' in March after not seeing 'each other for awhile'. They drive from 'Mount Lebanon / where they didn't serve whiskey' down to 'Castle Shannon' with 'Harry slowly at the wheel'.

The poem is plain free verse with no end punctuation, listing time, place and names like a road log. The crude, misspelled title works against the quiet body, where the men 'smiled soberly' and the car 'rolled along the cobblestone and trees'. The move from a dry town to the next one gives the drive its purpose without comment.