Bees

“Bees” was published in the Apricity, December 2021.

You have been at market
collecting bees in your pockets

bribing them with lavender blossoms and lunch meat
their soft wings like kisses on your wrists and neck

you bring them home day after day
but alas, they never stay

their heart is with the swarm and
that old woman next door has made a deal with the Queen

they can hive in her walls if the Queen’s minions
promise to carry her soul sunward when released

now the swarm labors and drones
between the studs behind her bed

30,000 bodies warm her brittle bones at night
she sleeps away her last days in a house made of honey