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

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

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

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

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

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