University of Virginia Library

Personal Maiming

Then the jailers began. One of
them came up to me and said,
"Why do you wear your hair like
that?" I wondered whether he
really wanted to know but decided
from his sneer that he didn't.
Another menacingly announced
that he was coming up with shears.
I told him if he touched me I would
cream his ass in court for personal
maiming, a charge I cooked up for
the occasion but since he receded
grumbling, I guess he didn't know
anything more about the law than I
did. They finally decided not to let
me into the yard since it would
cause a riot. I was beginning to feel
like Jayne Mansfield in a USO
show. Back in my cell I thought of
my cell block mate.

He was about forty, charged
with murder, a rap he had beaten,
and was now waiting to be tried on
breaking and entering. A more
engaging, intelligent man I've rarely
met, a philosopher of sorts, who
spoke of his ten children with
warmth and humor, and held the
love between them in a respect that
approached the religious. He was
framed by the state of Virginia
years after he had gone straight, he
claimed, since they knew he had
committed other crimes they could
not pin on him.