Pleased to share “Does She Still Like Billie Holiday?” a new poem of mine up and running, live at Feminine Collective, a fabulous NYC-based literary zine featuring writers exploring “humanity, raw and unfiltered.” Hope you can take a few moments to dig in, hop aboard, and enjoy the read.
Feminine Collective was founded over a decade ago by writer/model Julie Anderseon, with a mission “dedicated to empowering, enlightening, and entertaining its audience through the dissemination of distinctive stories, poetry, and prose that delve into the pressing issues confronting humanity in the contemporary world.” Lots of fine writing on this site, there for your enjoyment. Many thanks to Julie for including me and facilitating this creative community, which I am always chuffed to be a part of.
“Does She Still Like Billie Holiday?”
Sometimes when I lay awake on a hot summer night
listening to the chorus of crickets outside my bedroom window
in the hazy gauze of the southern town I landed in somehow
like an arrow in the garden or a bow upon a gift, hidden, waiting
I remember
When the snow came down so hard and fast that
the streetlights broke and the cars stopped moving and
the quiet took the block, like the breath of God over everything, and
we ventured out together, throwing snowballs at the wall,
making angels in the courtyard beneath our tiny balcony
taking pictures of the day, shot in black and white, because
we were young and free and in love, with no idea what would come,
though the negatives are gone and the pictures are long lost, still
I wonder
Doug Hoekstra 
Nice atmosphere and compelling story. Thanks for the read.