Twenty to Life

     Dick was overcome with gloom as the sun dipped below the prison wall.  The light reflecting off the razor wire was brilliant.  This was the closest thing to a sunset that he had seen in years.  Even though the sun had disappeared, it was not dark.  Daylight would hang around for another forty five minutes.  That old stone wall was so high it blocked the sun in the prison yard.  Unlike the outside, it would get dark  inside the yard twice.
     In here nothing changes.  Everyday at this time Dick would get melancholy and wonder why he was here.  Was it because he was mean as a stepped on snake.  Was it because he had hurt people?  Or was it because his parents had named him Dick?  Not willing to place the blame on himself, he always chose to blame his parents.  The real reason was one that even Dick did not fully understand.  He was, as his name suggested, a virile man.  An alpha male, he was comfortable with and loved women.  He was always able to conquer and dominate them.  However as his late teen years came, he began to realise that he was queer.  This realization upset and bewildered him.  He became more aggressive toward women.  That did not help his situation.  The queer feelings intensified.  He fought a losing battle.  He could not let the public know the truth.  It was 1979 after all.  But what could he do?  He knew that if he went into the prison system, there would be men, captive men.
     As we all know, young people do not ever make good decisions.  Now that he was thirty-five, Dick was unhappy with his choices.  The prison walls, darkness, isolation and fear every night was so unbearable, it proved that he had made bad choices.  After  entering the prison system, Dick realised that he was no longer the alpha male.  In fact he was low on the pecking order(no pun intended).  In the dark he was thankful for the safety of the bars.
     He was locked in a building with men that were not nice.  At the top of the heap was Frank.  A large mountain of a man with no compassion and no soul.  When he put his white eyes on you, your heart would almost stop.  Frank was in for murder.  Because the death penalty had been put aside, he was in for life and had nothing to lose.  Several of the guards had been injured by him.  It was a rite of passage for the new guards to challenge him.  If they didn't, it was seen as a sign of weakness.  Evil minded Frank sometimes inflicted serious bodily harm.
     Of all the men in the prison, this was the one that Dick feared the most.  Dick knew that Frank could smell the fear.  It was oozing from his body.  Dick had become lax in his attention and got too close to the bars.  As Frank reached out to the bars, Dick moved backwards quickly.  Too quickly.  It irritated him for his fear to control him.  No one else knew, but Frank.  "One day these bars won't be here," Frank said "and you know what I will do then."  Dick could not let anyone else see his distress.  To cover for this, he said in a loud voice,"I look forward to it!"  Frank just laughed.  That infuriated Dick even more.  However he knew when to be quiet.
     After observing Frank for years, Dick knew that he was a cunning and calculating killer.  He did not get away with twenty-three murders by being stupid.  He was not the retarded killer everyone imagined.  Frank had planned each death down to the last detail.  He did not target women.  It was men, and tough men at that.  None of the men were sexually assaulted, it was not like that.  It was the thrill of the conquest and victory over a worthy opponent.  If he could destroy a man equal to himself, that was the thrill that he needed.  His last intended victim was different.  The Alabama task force had suspected him for a while.  They used a police Sergeant for bait.  Knowing that Frank sucker punched his victims just below the sternum, in the diaphragm,  was just the edge the Sergeant needed.  He placed a metal plate there under his shirt.
     The momentary surprise was all the sarge needed.  When Frank hesitated for just a spilt second it was over.  The sarge broke Frank's jaw with a right cross.  As Frank stumbled back, his kneecap was broken by a downward side kick.  When the cop put his foot down, he spun around and caught Frank with a spinning back fist on his temple.  When he awoke he was in a lot of pain and handcuffs.  No one had pity on him, least of all the sergeant.  He had spent years with the Yoshukai Karate organization and even had a couple of classes with the founder, Master Yamamoto.
     Dick moved away into the darkness.  Why had he taken this route?  To get to the captive men?  He had not been in here long before he realised he was not attracted to men at all.  What was he to do?  At his age he knew that it would be hard to get out.
     Then there was Jimmy...

Wash Day

The days of washing clothes this way is long gone.  Even though this is in Haiti, I can still remember my grandmother doing the clothes by hand.  She would start a fire under a large black pot, get the water hot and wring the clothes out by hand.  times have changed  This is an 24x18 inch oil painting that I did on canvas.

New Tahoe

The new car for the city of Ashford's fire department is a new Tahoe.  We lettered it with gold backed up with black and a red reflective stripe.

Dawson Depot

sixteen feet by eight feet mural painted for Dawson Downtown beautification Board.



East L A

Here in East L A(Lower Alabama),
as they drink not from their mama,
the gators relax in the shade
against the trees
with their backs
and without saying please
the man slaps a tax
on everything
perhaps the man
from the tree should swing
as the gator drinks from the can

Cows, Cowboys and Cops

     Even at the best of times, the teen age years are a disaster.  Such was the case of Natalie.  When she turned fifteen, she lost her mind.  The crowd that she started running with were all operating without a brain also.  Her attitude went from bad to extremely bad.  This put a lot of stress on Sheila and I for we could do nothing with her.To her a curfew was a joke, something not to be concerned with.  After spending many sleepless nights waiting on the front porch we were despondent. I guess we soon got used to her behavior and would go to bed a little earlier.
     The summers in south Alabama are notorious for being hot and humid.  Sometimes the air gets so thick that it is a struggle just to breathe in a little air.  The humidity is so thick that sweat just sits on  your skin.  The only way to get it off is to wipe with a towel and the exertion of wiping, just makes you sweat more.  Occasionally the nights are cool with a soft breeze blowing.  After the heat of the day, this is a refreshing change.  This July night was just such a one.  It was late when we went up stairs and cool enough that we raised the windows to let the night air in.  The gentle breeze was blowing just enough to move the curtains ever so slightly.
     We were so tired and the night air was so comfortable, that we drifted off into a deep sleep.  Around two o'clock in the morning I heard a strange noise outside.  It had to be different to wake me up.  "Moo ma, moo ma, moo ma".  I could hear it in the front of the house, then on the back.  There were no windows on the side of the house, so all that I could hear there was a muffled noise.  As I slowly awakened, I could tell that it was the same noise, just moving around the house, and pretty fast at that.  I was tired and in a deep sleep, so I thought that I was dreaming.  Sheila finally awakened and yelled "What?"  She thought that Natalie had come home drunk and could not get in.  She assumed that it was her yelling moo ma, moo ma.  She rushed over to the window and looked down.  What she saw in the bright moonlit night angered her.  "What are you doing?" she demanded. 
      "Trying to catch our cows." the young man answered.
     Then the whole picture came in.  Up on the road, the cops had their cars parked, lights flashing and directing traffic.  There were three cows running around the house with the young calf close behind, bellowing "moo ma."  Behind the calf were two men trying to catch the four bovines.  By the time I got my pants on and got downstairs, the activity had moved to the barn.  My neighbor had gotten a rope on one of the cows.  As he and the cows rested, he wrapped the rope around his wrist.  Just as everyone was settling down, the horsed, who had been watching from the shadows, came up to the fence by the barn. 
     One of them snorted or broke wind and the loud noise busted the peace.  I could see by the eerily green glow of the mercury vapor light on the barn.  Two men, four cows and four horses all fighting for relief.  All of this seeped into my mind as I watched the man tied to the cow.  She bolted and he was a limp rag doll, pulled through several small trees.  How he kept his hand from being pulled off was a mystery.  When the cow stopped, he sheepishly pulled himself up off the ground.  Using a small sapling as a pull up point, he was careful not to spook the cow again.  There was blood and torn skin on every exposed part of his body.  His clothes were torn loose and only the belt kept his pants up.  He smiled an embarrassed smile and one of his teeth was dangling.  I am sure he would have cried if no one else was around.
     We helped him herd his cows home just as dawn was breaking.  In the early light, I could see that the cows were in need of food.  They must have smelled the hay stored in my barn and in desperation, they tried to get to it.  The neighbor offered everyone a cup of coffee, but I as well as the others declined.  We had to go and get some sleep.
     As I walked from the road to the driveway, I could see the barn in the soft morning light.  Natalie was standing there talking to bob.  I waved to her to come on over to where I was.  As she walked up, I asked, "Where were you last night?"
     "I went to the barn to see the horses, when I came home last night."  she replied.
     "Almost as soon as I got there, I saw the police cars."
      "Then the cows running around the house.", she continued.
     "Do you think the man is hurt bad?" Natalie asked.
     Relieved at knowing where she was, I answered "Probably not!"
     "Come on in and let's eat breakfast." 

Cedar Hawg

This little hog is a swine carved out of cedar.  The size is 12x4x3".  The knot worked out well for the snout.