A hand holds open a book displaying the poem "Schrödinger's Call" by Maudie Bryant, published in Naugatuck River Review. The poem describes receiving a voicemail about a father’s passing, blending the moment of ordinary work tasks with the shattering weight of loss. A white label across the page reads: “New publication in Naugatuck River Review.”
Poem Text:
Schrödinger’s Call
The first, I let ring.
Just one more thing, I thought,
just one more click
before the world cracked open.
I was still smoothing
out the creases of a new day,
the office barely awake—
the computer’s hum a soft rhythm,
my fingers clicking in time to a task
I was sure would be done
before the second round of rings.
But the second came fast,
I let the voicemail unfold in the silence,
the words coming slow,
like they had to work up the courage.
“Call back,” it said,
and I knew without knowing
that something had shifted—
something I’d never recover.
I dialed the number
with the same fingers
that had just typed another email,
clicked another box.
Then, the words.
“Your father passed.”
I sat still
as if the world had paused
with me,
as if the space between
those words
had been stretched
so thin
that I could feel my father
both here
and not here
at the same time.
The task,
still waiting,
the screen before me
suddenly distant,
a room I once knew—
but didn’t belong in anymore.
Between presence and absence, memory and silence. Grateful to see "Schrodinger's Call" in Naugatuck River Review. It's a poem written in the wake of my father's passing. 💞
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