"You’re the Pistol and Why I am Repulsed by Cockroaches"

We had a guy who came here to the Federal Prison at Three Rivers from another prison, nice guy, but, he’s a junkie; he has since been released and is a free man. Anyway, he got himself in a little debt, a little debt to one of the other races…I bailed him out and he repaid me with the monthly money his mother sends him…I want to add that he doesn’t even have coffee in his locker because he spends all of the money his mom sends him on dope…all, every penny.

The other day, out of the blue, I asked him this question: “What would you do if_________ pulled a pistol on your mother and robbed her?”
He replied, “I’d probably kill him!”
I hesitated for a few seconds then followed up, “Well, ________ is robbing your mother every month…and you’re the pistol he’s using to do it. You realize that, right?”
He hung his head low but didn’t answer. I walked away. A few days later he was high again. I like this guy, very respectful, from a good family and I pray to God that he wakes up. I wonder if his family knows what’s coming home to them.

Why I am so Repulsed with Cockroaches”

I told you that I dislike roaches, I’m actually repulsed by them. Some folks, to include my niece, has told me to man-up and stomp my nemesis, Lucifer. Like it’s that simple. You guys don’t have a clue what I’m facing over here, this guy’s a monster! He’s big, like a cat big…with glowing red eyes! This isn’t an ordinary cockroach. I will add that I haven’t seen Lucifer since my last posting…he can probably read minds too, and knows that he needs to lay low for a bit…but I can sense that he’s still out there just waiting to get at me. But back to the issue at hand. Why am I so afraid of roaches.

Well, I’ve told you before that my dad was an alcoholic, right? Well, he was. As a kid I’d watch him spend his paycheck on alcohol while my brother and I went without the stuff other kids had, yeah, he was that guy…don’t get me wrong here, he loved us, but he was a slave to alcohol. Anyway, I remember watching one morning as he rolled out of bed after a long drunken night to pick up a half-full beer can from the night before and take a long gulp, then to spit out a cockroach that had crawled up inside it during the night and then without hesitation swig down the rest of the beer! Yeah, he was that kinda alcoholic. That’s reason one. Reason two?

I grew up in Jacksonville Florida. Florida is a hot climate and so they have lots of roaches. Well, being that i grew up in a dysfunctional family I dropped out of school and left home at 15 years of age. And even though my childhood friends, Michael Hartley and Tommy Caron tried to help me as best they could, I spent allot of time living on the streets. One of the places that I would sleep, was on the upper ledge under one of the underpasses…there were roaches everywhere…I guess that somewhere in all that, I was traumatized by cockroaches…sounds crazy, I know, but it’s true. I’ll charge a guy with a shank, but I’ll I’ll cut and run from a cockroach in the shower…go figure that out. Styrofoam and cockroaches give me the creeps!

Thanks for reading this stuff and Peace be with you all. Mark

Three Rivers, 6-26-17