Long auburn hair
Fingers picking, backhand
Bottleneck thrashing
Closer to the microphone
Swaying to and fro
Like a cat
Or a snake
Or a dream
I could forsake
But never forget
As the blues played on
In the way they never had
The blues played on
And of course, they made me sad
Smoking on the run
Calling up the muse
Open G I wondered
Open D it was
Peppermint smile
Like the rain
Or a refrain
Or a list of things
Left for another day
With no regrets
As the blues played on
In the way they never had
The blues played on
And, of course they made me sad
Photo by Ras Taparta from FreeImages
Doug Hoekstra
Doug Hoekstra is a Chicago-bred, Nashville-based writer and musician, educated at DePaul University in the Windy City (B.A.) and Belmont University in the Music City (M.Ed.), whose prose, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in numerous print and online literary journals. His first set of stories, Bothering the Coffee Drinkers, was published in April 2006 and earned an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for Best Short Fiction (Bronze Medal). Ten Seconds In-Between, his latest collection of short stories, was published in June, 2021 on Better than Starbuckspress. Hoekstra has also worked extensively as a singer-songwriter with eight albums of original material on labels released on both sides of the pond, propelling touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, at bookstores, coffeehouses, clubs, libraries, pubs, festivals, radio stations, and castles; solo and with combos in tow. Musical highlights have included Nashville Music Award and Independent Music Award nominations, as well as many groovy happenings. 2021 also brings a new album of music, The Day Deserved. ("A lot of people write songs, Hoekstra writes five minute worlds" - Wired Magazine).
