A Hoe Is a Garden Tool

As the Felonist settles deeper into life at Albion, she wrestles with the meaning of love — how to practice it, protect it, and survive it inside a women’s prison. Between reading Thomas Merton and Corinthians, homesickness, and the grind of her prison programming, she searches for the “bright line” between surrender and self‑preservation. And in the middle of all that soul‑work, one offhand comment in the unit bathroom — “I think I whacked my nose with a hoe” — sparks a tense, funny misunderstanding that reminds her just how quickly language can turn volatile behind bars.