Colleen Addison

Before the operation I went sheet-shopping, hard to rest when all around you might rip. Already in pain, I stepped cautiously through the store entrance, my faltering feet drawn to the duvet covers. This year’s themes were birds, botanicals, all aspects of nature. Unaccountably though, I noted, the manufacturers had left out the fiercer fauna. There were no lolling lions, no hippopotamuses heaving their hefty bulks out of rivers or lakes. Certainly there were no chimeras or sphinxes. No one, it appeared, wished to sleep in a roc’s nest or gryphon’s lair. As sick as I was, I understood. Do you like this one? asked the saleswoman, selecting a package. The sweet sedge beckoned, and I sighed.  

Colleen Addison's work has been widely published in literary journals and newspapers; most recently, she appears in Halfway Down the Stairs, Paragraph Planet, and as a nominee for a Best of the Net award. She has a master's degree in English and Creative Writing, and a PhD in health information.