Courtney Cantrell

What more can I say about Courtney that I didn't tell you in her last post? How about The final book in her Demons of Saltmarch trilogy will be available very soon? Or she's the acquisitions editor for The Consortium, a group of writing professionals that is reinventing the way writers get published? Or, and this one's my favorite, her favorite exclamation is, "Cramazing!"

blueberry beer, u2, and a fedora

Find Shadows after Midnight
right now on Amazon

i stand at the bar 
a lifetime away from the stage as 
thoughts about my identity flood through me 

but i do not struggle to remember who i am

this time, i don’t need to know
because a brown fedora rests on the end of the keyboard. 

the singer claims he still hasn’t found
what he’s looking for 
but i say he’s discovered a rhythm to 
move my blood 
pulse my heart and
throb my core. 

i step forward 
into the open space at the foot of the stage
where the crowd does not dare tread 
in spite of their weizen, their vodka, 
their long island ice tea. 

to my name i have only blueberry beer
it hasn’t replaced my blood 
only infused me with delight 

no eyes on me
i walk on strains of melody 
and my toes tap a syncopated beat. 

at the foot of the stage
i look up 
into the keyboard player’s soul-questioning eyes
i reach up 
and do not blink as i pluck his brown fedora
from where it waits 

with his smile and nod in time to the song
he answers his own question as i step back 
yes 
behind me i feel the crowd’s shocked anticipation 
yes 
and i slide that fedora onto my head 

i let go

and i dance

my hands sweep down my every curve
my lips part to exhale joy 
my body undulates, intoxicated 
by nothing but passion. 

oh release.
how i have missed you. 

with the wondering eyes of the crowd on me
at the foot of the stage 
i dance 
i dance shake rattle and hum

i make love to life
wearing the keyboard player’s brown fedora 

that is how i think it could happen anyway 
as i stand a lifetime away at the bar 
and imagine. 


Courtney Cantrell is a writer of high fantasy, low sci-fi, and medium horror. The making of things and the sharing of those things with others is her passion. She enjoys chocolate and coffee and tries to keep these from making her sentences unnecessarily complicated. http://courtcan.com