new clothes and a new place to stay for a while

new clothes and a new place to stay for a while

fiction
edward w Pritchard

You get new clothes and a new place to stay for a while. Three years in Angola prison gets you new blue jeans, blue chambray shirts and two white tee shirts one size fits all, and a 10 by 10 cell, shared. You don't have to do much to get in. Poor, or colored walking somewhere when deputy had a bad day.

Routine, routine always every day the same. Don't fight though. No cocaine either. Singing is permitted when in cell or off duty. This music hasn't been changed by society, the tune is the same since slave days. Don't expect quiet, even at night. Boy, this is hell.

Sometimes it rains for three days straight, that interrupts routine. Count the days, don't write on walls. You have to eat boy. Just don't sit or stand there. That's the Mississippi river, old man river, on all three sides. Some people want to know why I sing the blues.

Keep moving during yard time. Don't stand there. Where you from? No from east or west yard? Bring me a cigarette next time. What you in for boy?

You can't work at no newspaper or radio station boy. You are SSE. That's special education. You get your GRE and you understand better why this is Hell.  It's always been like this. You get to work at farm, a field hand.

It's better than it use to be. Have you heard about rodeo? Louisiana is a beautiful State. Some people want to know why I sing the blues.