Amanda Laughtland lives in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington.
She is the author of Postcards to Box 464 (Bootstrap Press) and
runs her own small press called Teeny Tiny.
The pharaoh was king of the bees
although the bees preferred
to be left alone. On Mt. Olympus
gods ate honey while on earth
Pythagoras studied geometry
in hexagonal comb. In fancy hives
or crumbling chimneys, bees are at home.
Bees dance to share locations
of nectar, in distance from the hive,
in relation to the sun. Scientists
replaced the sun with a bulb
disrupting the bees' dance
until a small amount of blue sky
entered the experiment and the bees
could navigate, the hidden sun
resuming its tears which fall
to earth as honey and wax.
From the Latin for honey-carrier,
from the Greek for healer,
bees may fly six hundred miles
if not squashed, sprayed with insecticide
eaten, or killed by disease. Worn-out
worker bees will die in about
six weeks and must quickly
be replaced if the colony will take
all the pollen and nectar of summer.
The Natural Ability to Relax
Bees aren't for me. I only imagine
opening the hive's wooden lid.
Everyone says I look calm
but ask my acupuncturist
what's held in my back. Leave bees
to Trish, who calmly extinguished
a fire spread from a candle
to a child's ponytail, the fire
out in seconds in Trish's bare hands.
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