by Shawn Aveningo-Sanders
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| AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock for The New Verse News |
Soon an asteroid, captured in our gravity,
will pirouette our planet like a little moon.
I picture the new satellite wearing a tutu
with pink tights wrinkled at the knees.
Wait, do moons have knees? Maybe
Mother Luna will teach her new prodigy
how to pose for the light, waxing & waning
through each phase of its two-month stint,
orbiting around our world.
When my girls were little,
I taught them the five basic poses of ballet.
Fifth position was always the toughest—
toes pointed out, toe-to-heel-to-toe-to-heel,
rounding arms up above your head to form
a full moon. And like their short-lived interest
in leotards and ballet slippers, this mini moon
will soon grow tired too, of twirling around
in the same old circles. She will break free
to see what’s in store, to explore the unknown,
chart her own course, no matter how bleak
or cold it may seem to me.
Author’s Note: According to an article in The New York Times, an asteroid, 2024 PT5, will be captured in Earth’s gravity and circle our planet from Sept 29 thru Nov 25, effectively becoming a small moon, until it breaks free and flies off into space.
Shawn Aveningo-Sanders’ poems have appeared worldwide in literary journals including ONE ART, Naugatuck River Review, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Poemeleon, About Place Journal, and Snapdragon, to name a few. She is the author of What She Was Wearing, and her manuscript Pockets was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest. She’s co-founder of The Poetry Box press and managing editor of The Poeming Pigeon. Shawn is a proud mother of three and Nana to one darling baby girl. She shares the creative life with her husband in Oregon.