String Theory
Shawn Aveningo-Sanders
She opts for fuzz at her fingertips
over the not-quite-able-to-crawl effort
it takes to reach her Vroom-Vroom car
or Polkie the dotted giraffe—
favorites placed just beyond her grasp.
The alabaster rug’s secret call invites her
little pointer to trace a pattern, examine
a make-believe map to her treasure, where
she pauses to pinch a pinch of fuzz. She wants
to taste this magic carpet where nursery tunes
play in her mind, where her tippy-twinkle-toes
love to tap dance on the pillowy thread stage.
She plucks the fuzzy string like it’s a prize,
as if to say Look, Nana. I picked it just for you,
like it’s a daisy from an imaginary garden.
See, Nana, it tastes good too! I pluck the fuzz
from her fingers just as it kisses her lip
and tuck the barely-there thread into my pocket
in exchange for an impromptu rattle—
a turquoise box of little white mints, its iridescent
label catching the light and her eyes. When
she shakes it, her pink-striped pajamas shimmy
into laughter. What bliss! To be here,
on this shared string of her continuum.
How magically she has disappeared my doubts,
a lifetime of What if I zigged instead of zagged.
Shawn Aveningo-Sanders
Shawn Aveningo-Sanders’ poetry has appeared in journals worldwide, including Calyx, OneArt, Quartet, About Place Journal, Timberline Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, and many others. Author of What She Was Wearing (2019), her manuscript, Pockets, was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest (2024) and is forthcoming from MoonPath Press in late 2025. Shawn is two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. A proud mom and Nana, she shares the creative life with her husband in Oregon.