Kent Dixon
Geeker Pray to His God
(from WIP Jailhouse Rock)
My shit come in one day when dope boy tell me he gotta go out, want me mine the store, give me about 4 packs worth crack cocaine and tell me he wan see all green when he get back.
So what I do, yo, go wave my lump of yank at this bitch I dig & before you know, our piece shrunk down to dime size. I gets scare now. I should, man. They find me same day, 8 of em drags me around back and slam bam I thinking so this is what it’s like to die.
My head stove in my eye stove out my teeth scatter like chickenfeed, my ribs made all stomach-like squishy (six broke). . . so much womping on me they getting tired!
So what pull me through? That whole time they making scramble geeker outta me, I’m thinking, I’m praying to my god: Oh, man, I wish they’d get this over with so I can get me a hit. Man, I needs a hit.
About the writer:
Kent Dixon is a prize-winning writer with three Pushcart nominations and three Ohio Arts Council awards to his credit. His fiction and poetry have appeared in TriQuarterly, The Iowa Review, Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Gettysburg Review, Georgia Review and others. His nonfiction has appeared in The American Prospect, Florida Review, Kansas Quarterly, Energy Review, and others. He is recently retired from teaching Literature and Creative Writing at Wittenberg University. His graphic novel The Epic of Gilgamesh, co-authored with his son Kevin Dixon, is in release from Seven Stories Press. He lives with his wife Mimi in Springfield, Ohio.
Image: Department of Corrections Inmate by Damir Spanic on Unsplash. Fine art photograph.
