Wednesday, 21 May 2025

Colleen Addison: space

in the space that exists now because you don’t write me I sit on a central American deck the yoga mat unused on the planks and a coffee cup next to me dregs dark at the bottom the room visible through the sliding doors with its twinbedspushedtogether the howling of monkeys and chitterchatter of birds I don’t know feels silent as a soundtrack without the beep of your text and yesterday the pitter of rain fell beepless onto the doors the hotel clerk called my name in the dark that wasn’t you either and now a squirrel runs from leaf to leaf like gymnastics but less elaborate I get up not to check the phone but to take a photo the squirrel leaps again and it is gone


Colleen Addison completed a PhD in health information; she then promptly got sick herself. Her recent work has been featured in Giant Tentacles, Halfway Down the Stairs, and River Teeth.