They say…
it wasn’t messy
until the cat.
The cat just wanted to play,
but somewhere along the way,
she ran into a human like us.
Together, they began
to play with the red string.
They say…
before the human,
there was no method to the string—
just thrown about,
knotted inexplicably.
But then man came
and saved the day.
The string and cat said, “Hooray!”
They say…
man showed up
with rules:
“The string isn’t a toy,
it’s a tool.
Throwing it about
would be cruel.
People could trip,
and one day,
the string could rip.”
They say…
they all agreed
to move the string
to a different corridor,
behind a big door.
“Any questions?”
A little hand rose up.
She was lost in the crowd,
a girl I hadn’t noticed before.
Her question sent ice to my core:
“Then why is there red string
all over the floor?”
I snapped,
“There is no red string
on the floor!”
If they hear her question
Will it be safe for us anymore
The air grows heavier
Much too heavy to breathe
The sounds of heavy footsteps
Now growing louder than a horn
I’ve never heard knocks like this before
Why does it sound like a war
on the other side of the door?
All for a little girl?
Is that what all of this is for?
But then I looked down
and barely began to see—
the red string
had tangled me.
And by scolding the girl
Instead of letting it be
Have I sentenced her to a fate
just like me?
Too stunned,
to speak,
too stuck,
to move—
Her soft knowing eyes met mine
With the truth that mine were too calloused to realize
What They say…
might be too good
to be true.
They say…
they lived happily ever after
They say…. “They will never all question us anyway.”
They say…
They say the world is orderly, that the rules keep us safe. But what happens when we start to see the tangled threads beneath it all? A Fable Tangled in Red String is a poetic exploration of control, obedience, and the quiet power of questioning what we’re told. Through the lens of a simple game—man, cat, and string—this piece unravels the illusions of order, revealing how easily we become ensnared in the stories ‘they’ tell us. But once we see the string, can we ever unsee it?
