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I suppose there must be a godto do with this blue-green earthwhen I am reluctant enoughto consider the bees When I am reluctant enoughto consider the selfless bees,kept and unkept,I think of something more than us Something more than you and I,weaving mystery into secret,like they doturning flowers to wineContinue Reading

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My grandmother was the first of us taken by hornets. Rumors had warned us, posters had warned us, even our own TVs: “They can chase a person a quarter of a mile,” “They kill 1,000 people a year,” “They have killed horses,” “They have killed elephants,” “Any given attacker willContinue Reading

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(To be read in a looping figure eight pattern, as a mobius strip) absconding hiveafter the swarm :orient: nectar death —“not born, but rather becomes” dearthocellus; oculus; ocelli open Jihye Shin is a Korean-American poet and bookseller based in Florida.Continue Reading

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When the yellow jacket stungmy hand, it died.I plucked out its stingeralong with a portion of its posterior. He bequeathed me his asshole,his apian F-you,and crash dove. He bit the sandand I left a footstep in the trail. For three days, fingers, palm,wrist remained swollen, throbbed.Only my opposable thumb wasContinue Reading

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I have gatheredthe honeythat was inyour hives and whichyou all were surelykeepingfor winter Forgive meit was so pleasingso sweetand so pure Come next yearI will certainlycome searchingfor more Brooke Hoppstock-Mattson is an American poet living in Canada with her spouse and ginger cat, David Bryne. When she is not writing,Continue Reading

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The beekeeper knows that he is above other people because he is keeping a species alive which faces extinction. The beekeeper knows he is above other people because he is keeping a species alive with 20,000 variants. The beekeeper knows he is above other people because he is able toContinue Reading

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Only one hive made itthrough this furious winterof subzeroes and wind chillbitter disputes andmarital strife; they werethe hardiest, I guess,the colony with a queenbent on survival,in mad love with her brood.After dividing and divisionswe agreed I’d keep the beesand move them down the roadto a friend’s garden: wildflowers,mulberry trees, peace.SoContinue Reading

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Yesterday afternoon The Fly followed me through my doorflying in with the wind because the wind flows with theconfidence of one who knows where to goI, too, follow the wind when I crave an adventurebut The Fly couldn’t have known that my homehas no treasure near, only disarray and disasterContinue Reading

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Sometimes, when no one is watching, the bees tire of their endless laboring and slip away into the beds of clovers to rest. At dusk, rabbits nuzzle them awake as they scrounge through the green, exercising their pastoral rights. Puzzled and drowsy, the bees scuttle into night like tourists inContinue Reading

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There was a legend that one hundred years ago our population was cut in half when a cloud of creatures descended from the sky, set down upon our village, and drove our people into madness. It was a story told to children. “The Night of the Swarmed Eclipse.” “The MillionsContinue Reading