Beads by Shawn Aveningo Sanders

Beads

There are days I long for long-ago days
and crave the cackled song of her laughter.
Why did she have to leave us so soon?
I see her in every bloom of iris, purpling
my side yard each June. Grief is
a forever fading bruise, a reminder
of our Kodachrome days, all those little
snapshots we carry, trinkets we unbury
from the drawer of memory—
a bracelet full of charms reminding us
how lucky we are to find one another,
each of us, a shimmering bead
on life’s great, miraculous string.

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Shawn Aveningo Sanders’ poems have appeared in journals worldwide, including Calyx, ONE ART, contemporary haibun online, Drifting Sands, Quartet, Timberline Review, Cloudbank, Sheila-Na-Gig, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and many others. Her new book, Pockets (MoonPath Press, 2025) was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest. Shawn is a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Touchstone Award nominee. A proud mom and Nana, she shares the creative life with her husband in Oregon, where they run a small press, The Poetry Box. When she’s not writing, you might find her in a shoe store hunting for a new pair of red shoes. (redshoepoet.com)