In the bee-loud glade . . .
peace comes dropping slow
W. B. Yeats
Permit me to approach
my bee boxes
only lighting the smoker.
Let me remove the veil
and gloves, the waxed coat,
kick off the bog boots.
Let smoke turban my head
and curl down my arms.
Allow me to reach into the combs,
unquestioned.
I invite the honeybees to swarm me.
I want to wear them all day, revel
in the brocade of
their glitter and sting.
See how the honey combs
my porous bones,
straightens my unstable spine.
I’ve become statuesque,
prismatic.
Bee balm paints
my eyes, amber colors
my focus. Dressed as I am,
I traipse through the wild indigo
to find my way deeper into
the glade, bee-loud.
—
Rebecca A. Spears, author of Brook the Divide (Unsolicited Press) and The Bright Obvious (Finishing Line Press), has her poems, essays, and reviews included in TriQuarterly, Calyx, Crazyhorse, Barrow Street, Verse Daily, Ars Medica, Field Notes, and other journals and anthologies. She has received awards from the Taos Writers Workshop, Vermont Studio Center, Porches Writing Retreat, and Dairy Hollow House. Brook the Divide was shortlisted for Best First Book of Poetry (Texas Institute of Letters).
