Four walls through a first person point of view.



That’s how I saw it, laying in the center of the empty room on the bamboo floor board my daddy laid.  



Staring at the ceiling, tracing the corners with raw and broken eyes.



I would be the last person to leave this place, and rightfully so. The last person to say goodbye. The last person to lock the door, and let the house go.



Four walls through a first person point of view. I spoke to the woman inside of my bones gently, as my voice cracked for the last time.



In this room, I became a warrior. In this room, I became a woman. In this room, I became a writer. In this room, I became a wanderer.



Four walls through a first person point of view.  I carried the weight of the world with me as I walked out that door.

Lily Kesha Gump

Sittin' on the curb of Bronx and Main Street

How I wish I could wrap my arms around you

Sweet little lady, lookin’ grown with a picture of her mama’s stare frozen on her face

Wrists slung through the spaces of her thighs, waiting for a daydream

And she sees me as I’m twirling by in my ruby reds and thigh high leather grace



There you go darlin,

She says to me  

Scoring on my indigo smile

She bites men to sleep

With the crevices of her curves

As her voice weakens wicked

she pulls me out of my gloom



There you go darlin,

She says to me

With a time bomb ticking

On my pain pain pain

And the pen is in my hand

Before she even leaves my sight



I love this city

I love these women

I love their shoes

I love their smiles

Cheeky little laughs  



Someone once recommended

When I was dancing under the shades of a neon lamp  

From Homeless to Harvard

by a woman named Liz or Marie

Or maybe I read the title off of a screen
when I walking with Maryanne on north Peachtree street


And I remember


Lily Kesha Gump

How I wish I could wrap my arms around you

And give you the life some white woman

who doesn’t even know you

Thinks you desire.

Water in my roots
And once again, my stems bleed me out of an aquamarine cyclone
Flying through every cloud, floating through the dopamine daydreams
manias and monotones
After a decade of droughts
I twirled in a tornado
While the demons ate my brain
So I designed a tavern
To lock myself in

Water in my roots
And once again, a blurred vision of ecstasy blinds my eyesight
Looking in opaque mirrors, pressing the pearls of the pendulum
sepias and saxophones
I danced through a hurricane
While the angels saved my torso
So I tore the broken chains
To let myself out

I left Billy last summer, and at first it was hard
To not feel her blankets weigh me down
into a pentagon pool of starches and creams
To not feel her sugar rush supreme
through the highs and the lows
of an extra-large platform
Until she resurfaced, kissing my lips
raw until my throat burned dry
And I knew she had to let me go.

Have you ever tasted her between your teeth?
The midnight cowgirl with a suicide smile
She’ll love you until the sun rises
if you can play your cards right

Love you like linen, rose, and sugar
I stared at her through the broken glass
Of mirrors shattered white
In filthy rags

The colors of my daydreams
And I can’t help but wonder
Have they ever tasted her between their teeth?
The midnight cowgirl with a suicide smile

What does it feel like to drown the same way you do?
I tied anchors to my feet
for five days to understand
And roamed the earth
in rose gold petals

In pursuit of the mistress in my fantasies
Black, white, and gray stones flicker
Do they feel the same way I do?
This morning I can write like god

With the knowledge that in twelve hours
I won’t have enough breath to ask
Have they ever tasted her between their teeth?
The midnight cowgirl with a suicide smile

Manic mimosas
On a syndicate smile
Bourbon scotch cherry blossoms
With cinnamon eyes
He’s the only one who knows
how deeply he affects me.

Tonight I need to drown in you
Feel the loneliness consume me
With no desire to grow
From the garden I was planted in
Staring at Louisiana’s root -
how deeply he affects me.


I don’t want to be beautiful
I don’t want to be happy
I don’t want to be skinny
I don’t want to be strong
Let me drown drown drown

With the sheer knowledge
I’ll be laughing like God
After freezing a man
who sings my name
for him, I will return

To manic mimosas
On a syndicate smile
Bourbon scotch cherry blossoms
With cinnamon eyes
He’s the only one who knows
how deeply he affects me.