Broken Toe Blues

The night before last I got woke up again by my neighbor, Marvin Gabrion, at two-thirty in the morning. He is an obnoxious old man of low intelligence who nobody likes. Do in order to punish everyone for not liking him he likes to moan and wail all night and most of the day. And if that's not enough to bother everyone he'll clap his hands loudly once in a while just to wake up as many people as he can to hear his "singing", which, of course, is exactly the kind of thinking and behavior that makes him so unpopular to start with.

Anyway, the night before last was the umpteenth time he kept me awake at night, so I got up and stupidly kicked my door, hard enough to break my big toe again (the last time I broke it was in junior high gym class while playing soccer). So now I not only have to put up with his ignorant shenanigans, but I must suffer in silence for my own.

There is no point reporting my broken toe on sick call since the best they can do is confirm it's broken with an x-ray then put a splint on it. And, since I don't have to walk around at all (being confined to my cell 24/7) there's really no need for an elaborate splint. I've just been keeping my shoes on, even while I sleep, which seems to provide plenty of support. Luckily I have aspirin to help get through the first 48 hours or so, which was the most painful. But now the pain has subsided and I just have to be careful not to put any weight on it.

As for Gabrion, the stupid old man who instigated my folly, even as I jot these words he is wailing away in the cell across the hall from me, oblivious to the guards banging on his door to give him his "meds" (anti-depressants for sure, but he needs anti-psychotics). I don't feel bad mentioning his name openly in this blog because I'm not saying anything that can get him in trouble. "Singing", as he calls it, isn't against the rules, which he knows well and frequently insist on his "right' to do it when guards or other prisoners complain. He himself is notoriously the biggest "rat" on the tier, frequently telling on other prisoners out loud and in front of everyone. Then he turns right around and accuses solid convicts of being "rats, fags, child molesters, and cowards", to name a few of his favorite insults.

Marvin Gabrion is one man who really challenges my belief that everyone has merit and deserves to live. The only merit I can find in him is that he really challenges and hence strengthens my ability to be patient, which my broken toe painfully attests.