Text Tuesdays – Prose – Warsan Shire – “Home”

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Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Center for Civil Rights, Georgia, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Refugee, Sacramento, Text Tuesdays

Last week, I heard Dr. Isabella Alexander read this prior to showing us a clip of her ducumentary, “The Burning” about refugees seeking asylum.

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
your neighbours running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

Text Tuesdays – New Prose – “Always Learning”

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Always Learning, Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Georgia, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Sacramento, Text Tuesdays

Original piece, I dont feel that I visualized the concept well.
4/10/17
20 years ago,
I learned you,
I knew you,
We were too alike,
But though I fell,
In love with you,
You were not mine,
I knew you,
You knew me,
Or we thought we did,

Text Tuesdays – Blue Lines Excerpt – Chapter 13: Beauty in Blue and White

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Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Chapel Hill, college, FKA Twigs, Georgia, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, music, Sacramento, Tahliah Debrett Barnett, Two Weeks, UNC, UNC Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I started this blog to support the process of completing and publishing my manuscript, Blue Lines, yet when I started this labor of love in 1998, I felt that certain events would retard the process. Time and life, and eventually those events did retard the process. This is one of my favorite chapters, though not my favorite scene. To set up the scene, my fictional protagonist, Keypsiia is sitting in Coker Aboretum, after hanging out with her best friend Azul the night prior because she was annoyed with her interest, antagonist Blue.
As I share today, I do it being that the manuscript takes place on the campus of the current NCAA Champions, The University of North Carolina, and also because I found it funny how many of thing themes authored in this chapter were echoed in the lyrics of FKA twigs’ song, “Two Weeks.”
Please enjoy:

“Hello love,” Blue interrupted Keypsiia’s solace.
She smiled as she looked up from the uneven wooden bench. The sun’s glow bathed her through the twisted tree barks and haphazard vines that formed the awning that opened to the walkway bordering the south end of the Coker Arboretum and her smile radiated her face as a few leaves floated in their descent to the hidden dirt sidewalk.
Keypsiia’s hair was pulled back into a curly auburn puff at the back of her head as she sat with her legs folded under her form. She was tired and the sinuses behind her nose throbbed from drinking the previous night hanging out with Azul. But, while briefly gazing up to Blue, a large silly grin overtook her face. She reflected back to their brief argument the day prior and how she had wanted to call Blue last night, but that she didn’t have his number. Her heart jumped just seeing him before her. His navy First Down Bubble jacket hung haphazardly ruffled under the straps of his navy backpack and she focused on a brown and white feather that pointed out from it. His hat covered his cornrowed braids and his baggy light blue Ruff Wear jeans careened down his legs, to rest upon his opened boots. Yes, she reflected, this was the man who brought her such joy in just being there.

Text Tuesdays – New Prose – “Raw”

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Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Georgia, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Raw, Sacramento, Text Tuesdays

I am naked,
My feelings are raw,
Powerless in trying,

Text Tuesdays – Joni Mitchell – “A Case of You”

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Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Georgia, Joni Mitchell, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Sacramento

Just before our love got lost you said
“I am as constant as a northern star”
And I said “Constantly in the darkness
Where’s that at?
If you want me I’ll be in the bar”

On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh you’re in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet

Text Tuesdays – New Prose – “Brand New”

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Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Georgia, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Love, Sacramento

It’s been a minute.

1/31/17
There’s nothing like the first taste,
Of new love,
The innocent smiles,
Bashful eyes,
Unsaid words,
That let me know how I enamored you,

Text Tuesday – New Prose – “You Stole My Heart”

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Atlanta, Baby, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Child, Georgia, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Sacramento, Text Tuesdays, Toddler

What is love,
What is growth,
What is knowing,
When you smiled at me,
You melted my heart,

Text Tuesdays – New Prose – Haiku

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Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Georgia, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Sacramento

Unearth my errors,
Growing within life’s constraints,
Each day a new choice.

The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.

Text Tuesdays -New Prose – “Musings”

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Atlanta, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Georgia, iPhone, iPhone 6, iPhoneography, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Los Angeles, Love, Poem, Poet, poetry, Prose, Sacramento, Text Tuesdays, Touch

10/25/16
The…

Glance of your eyes,
Touch of your voice,

Text Tuesdays – New Prose – “Awesome”

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Arizona, Atlanta, Awesome, Baby, Big Apple, Birthday, Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, California, Child, Citi Field, Coachella, Coachella Festival, Coachella Valley, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Georgia, Girl, Girlfriend, Governors Ball, Hawaii, Kauai, Key Yemaya Walker, Keypsiia, Keypsiia Walker, Keypsiia Yemaya Walker, Las Vegas, Love, Mother, Nevada, New York, New York City, Outside Lands, Outside Lands Festival, Outside Lands Music and Art Festival, Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, Outside Lands Music Festival, Phoenix, Poem, Poet, poetry, Prince, Prince Rogers Nelson, Princeville, Prose, Purple Rain, Randall Island, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sleep, Text Tuesdays, The Meadows, Toddler, UNC, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake

10/11/16
I wake up,
We had an awesome choice to make,
On my mind in an arid municipality,
In the shadow of Portman western architecture,
In a lofty position amidst the empire peach of the south,
Looking down across a familiar terrain,