The Poet Laureate of a Tupelo, Mississippi Truck Stop Bathroom

A Stunning and Brave Literary Genius Shares His Art with Weary Interstate Travelers and Over-the-Road Truck Drivers

While I was traveling over the holidays, I stumbled upon a great new writer, Fred Q. Gumby, III, the poet laureate of the men’s latrine in the Pilot truck stop in Tupelo, Mississippi. Mr. Gumby is a prolific composer of sonnets, limericks, and epic poetry, which he publishes on the walls of public bathrooms across the country.

The Poet Laureate of a Tupelo, Mississippi Truck Stop Bathroom (Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash)

On the way back to Birmingham from Memphis recently, I stopped by the Pilot truck stop in Tupelo to get gas and take a piss. Little did I know that I was about to encounter one of the most promising new voices on the American literary scene. While I drained my bladder, I glanced around the bathroom stall. As a lifelong lover of the arts, I enjoy the masterful Fleischer-Cartoon-style drawings one sometimes finds in such places, and this particular bathroom stall did not disappoint. There were illustrations aplenty — most of them apparently drawn by a gynecologist,…