To be sung like a sweet unified whine, like a blues kat drunk off of wine
I miss my baby
She’s far away, in a land called Maybe
I can stare at the wall for as long she won’t call
Take me to candle town, and drink my soul down
Loss for words
Smiling because the do is for her.
I still miss it. Now there’s a new policy: No visitor may touch an inmate. The prisoners and I sit with a pane of thick glass between us and speak through heavy black receivers. Often we cannot hear each other. Phone’s not working, we’ll mime. Even when the phones do work, everything we say is taped and made available to their prosecutors. The confessional is tapped. Now these men have to insist their innocence even when they want to confess their crimes to me. When hearts can’t break, they become harder.
There are no more tears during these visits. Goodbyes come quickly, usually with a knuckle bump against the bullet proof glass. Their faces turn stony as the guard ushers them out.
Lately I’ve begun to take one inmate’s youngest daughter to see him. She kneels on the chair next to me to reach the black receiver. She holds it to her ear and smiles at her father’s face through the glass. Tattoos cover his cheeks, neck, and forehead, but she is not afraid of him. She sings to him through the phone, holding it like a microphone. I teach her new songs on the long drives to the prison, and I whisper the lyrics in her ear when she forgets. Her voice travels through the intercom: “You are my sunshine…my only sunshine. You make me happy…when skies are gray.”
Her father puts a hand to the glass, his fingers wet with tears."
—
Chris Hoke
Missoula, Montana
Smoking weed has made me feel dumb.
The last day to happen was like being inside a tornado, but so far out the tornado dun even make a sound.
I will take a break. .
HORNINESS
Its the full moon tonight . . I’m sayin enchiladas, horchata, perhaps cookies and a whole lot of organization, fleshing out the eves. Turning into a hoarder before my own eyes. You gotta admit its a pleasant day when we all do what we want to do, more pleasant when its what you need at the same time.
We need slow
