On the road to Angola:

                      Handmade sign: BULLWHIPS
                      Turn-off: SOLITUDE, LOUISIANA
                      Property gate: WEST INHERITANCE



                                            On the road to St. Gabriel:

Zipping through Ferriday                                  Great Balls o’ Fire
          If it ain’t The Killer’s hometown




In the old days they would have sent you to America

The one called Grasshopper raises wild things — sparrows, hares, you
      name it

They’ve got a mule-skinner here that can make one sit down and talk

Then there’s the wren nesting in the razor wire

I read that the former governor is employing Mr. von Bülow’s attorney

Sissy is Mr. Redwine’s catahoula

Nolan knows where the dove eggs are

Pop named every single one of his roses, his company keepers

I haven’t found anyone good enough for my cats, said Lyles

He bottle-fed the colt Lil Tête, and rehabilitated Ginger
          whose backend is sunken still

That dog, the guard said, is emancipated

That man, Nolan said, of Ginger’s former keeper
          didn’t need no dog

Smurf is photographed with Daisy; she’s just a pup

But she’s a Fila Brasileiro 
          as draft horse to regular horse, the very core of horseness

Tiger Lady, Storm, Kilo, Thunder, Josie, Duke, Bonnie, Blaze,
          Dolly, Grubby, Jack, Buster, and Tracker

Put your hands together for the K-9 unit

If they can get outside the fence they still have to beat the dogs
          No one’s beat the dogs yet, said Castlebury

Whoever possesses AUDACITY must be taken to the Water
          and thoroughly dunked

Swallows multiply in the Red Hat building

The greenhouse dog is Fancy

In the Red Hat building Old Sparky gathers webs

No condoms for the heart

Violence. H. Rap Brown proclaimed, is American as apple pie

Over 6 trillion served; over 2 million behind bars

Mr. Redwine is the coffin builder; Grasshopper his apprentice

Built a replica of Old Sparky for the prison museum

International Harvester provided the generator for the original
          drove it around on a flatbed
          from penitentiary to penitentiary

About the thickness of a pair of panties, You Honor

She was a slab of a woman

The radio calls it predatory selection,
          as in white shark’s preference for seals

Her husband, he was a wonderful, wonderful man
             
             That one, he should have never been born

Some run to type

To be a good host the Christian DJ in the dale carnegie T-shirt
          offers us a cup of tepid Kool-Aid

To be the good guest we lift our cups and drink
          I have a petty fear of red

Where I come from the guest must honor her host

                          Notice: CAMP J
                          DUE TO RELIGIOUS CALL-OUT NO BAND CALL-OUT

Mural of the Last Supper, call-out building, east wall

What is that the disciples are eating do you think
          Crawfish       Chicken       Gar

          when the Muslims bow to the east
          the mural covered with corduroy

Every faith allowed except Satanism

Wall plaque:
          THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT BLOODHOUND SITE WAS ENTERED
          INTO THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORICAL PLACES
          NATIONAL PRESERVATION ACT OF 1966

Her inamorato, he was a wonderful, wonderful man
       That one, he was an inveterate pig

                                       DUE TO THEFT:
                       All True Crime and Black Study Titles
                       Are housed in closed shelving
                       Limit 3 books per person
                       0 exceptions        so don’t ask

Saturday night
Going to Wal-Mart
Satisfaction guaranteed

Over 6 trillion served, 2 million put away

It gets old                                      the way we do things

And Nolan is the Buddha
Maybe        Maybe not

His mansuetude manifest

No one here for walking on the grass