The Last Visit from the Girl in the Willow Tree
She took a hammer and busted a chunk of her summer just to come see me when my life was on the line, behind glass in jailhouse oranges. More
Siddhartha’s Loop
I been goin’ to the Jersey shore since I was a kid and ain’t never seen a condom or syringe wash upon the sand. The only thing hazardous was,… More
Planted in Concrete
I stood and stared at the vent on the wall above the toilet in my cell, holding a ripped piece of my sheet in my hand. I knew the… More
The Purple Horizon: A Short Story about Dying
They asked me about the last time I spoke to the fugitive, that’s what they referred to him as. Not as Elijah, not as my son, just as the… More
How Should I Look?
Would you prefer I meet your expectations, / Grasp your neck with yellow-clawed fingers, / tobacco-stained tips squeezing off your airway, / Sour breath tinged with yeasty fumes of… More
Laying Roots
I wake from my sleep stiff and groggy. When I try to lift my head, it feels heavy, too heavy. My neck is sore. I lay flat on my… More
The Years In Between
The tall gray wall encircles fifty-five acres of land. Spired towers with narrow steel doors, loophole windows, and floodlights straddle the wall, like spines on a fearsome dragon. Rolling… More
That’s the Way It Is in Prison
Murf the Surf and I are walking in the rain past the steam plant heading back to the Southwest Unit. The chapel is off to our left, separated from… More
To Eat or Not to Eat, That Is the Question
An Examination of the Food Culture at One Modern American Detention Center Fictional and nonfictional accounts[1] of prison[2] life all point out the centrality of food in a prisoner’s life.… More