Susan E. Wadds
Zoom Call With an
Old Friend
“The flowers are for you.”
– after Kim Addonizio
Back against the door,
feet braced on the parquet,
I don’t speak what scares me,
instead I say the other things—
the success of new bread,
the red nubs of rhubarb,
spring leeks in the green soup.
No, you say, tell me the rest.
I’m a lucky one, I say,
no right to be sad.
I conceal my raggedness
with a flowered dress—
ask if it’s true that light comes in
where a thing has cracked.
A thousand miles away
you lean in close and say,
Tell me, old friend,
tell me everything.
Susan Wadds, Winner of The Writers’ Union of Canada’s 2016 short prose contest, has had short fiction and poetry featured in literary journals and anthologies, including The Blood Pudding, Room, and carte blanche magazines. The first two chapters of her forthcoming novel, “What the Living Do,” won Lazuli Literary Group’s writing contest, and was published in Azure’s winter 2017 issue. “What the Living Do” is set for a spring 2024 release by Regal House Publishing.
A graduate of the Humber School for Writers, Susan is certified in the Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) method of writing workshop facilitation. Since 2014, she has been leading writing workshops and retreats in Canada, internationally, and most recently, virtually. The past president and speaker coordinator for the Simcoe County Writers (WCSC), Susan is a member of the WCYR (Writers Community of York Region), MAA (Muskoka Authors Association), and WFWA (Women’s Fiction Writers Association) and professional member of the Canadian Authors’ Association (CAA).
