The News Bees that Way


african beesThe news seems to be such a flexible subject these days. North/East/South/West which direction distorts the best? Today I offer my take on the news informed by the African honey bees’ transcontinental story.  As you may know, a Brazilian geneticist decided to breed hard-working African bees with mild mannered and somewhat lazy European bees.  The desired result was hard-working mild mannered bees.  It didn’t quite work (although honey production went up exponentially and made him a load of money.) It seems that African bees stayed up later (dusk being the ideal time for mating) and flew higher (queen bees picking their consorts from the highest flyers) with the result that there was far more African bee to African bee mating.  Now the West is full of African bees who have gone wild.  What is the relationship of African bees to the news? Survival.  Looking at the bees gives us all lessons in survival.  The news as given can cause us to despair, lose hope, give up when what we need to do is stay up later and fly higher.

 

television newscast

death is dropped

onto my plate each evening

pressed between big game scores

and electronic weather report

abbreviated newsprint

punctuated with glossy photos

cut away to open graves

 

large spiny mouthfuls

of my dead relatives

are stuffed between

my clenched teeth

and tight jaw.

tears run

from the corners

of my eyes.

 

they ask me to eat my dead

swallow them whole

neat like a shot

of two hundred year old bourbon

distending my belly

leaving no waste

 

they ask me to consume my dead

and maintain my peace, my place

each evening the days counting

is brought out, skimmed across the globe

platters of dried and delicate babies

mixed with brittle forgotten elders

 

next to tureens of enraged impaled mothers

those who only needed to eat

those who rotted from man made diseases

those who imploded because their bodies

simply refused to fight anymore

a roster of those killed or wounded in battle

 

civilization’s unavoidable causalities

a portion of suffering piled high

presented with a flourish

cacophony of applause

now, open wide

chew. cut to commercial

 

but, we have been taught

about eating the dead

that it is not to be done, unless

it is the heart for valor,

the muscles for strength,

the soul for forbearance

the mind for history

 

eating their expendable

their unneeded

their discarded

the bones cracking beneath teeth

scratching holes into lungs

this modern day cannibalism

is always painful.

 

african beeso, i have begun to feed on life

to feed on life

to watch the african honey bees

who move and nest

and move and nest

migrating across continents

gathering, building and stinging

all who dare to exploit

the sweetness of their honey

 

i come, you see from people

who have lived for eons

making peace with deadly bees

while harvesting their lush syrups

 

yes, i have begun to feed on life`

to feed on life

which tastes bitter at times

and sticky like melon juice

or sharp like tree bark

feeding on life

 

studying bees

learning to sting

fashioning a stronger hive.

 

devorah major

(from street smarts)

 

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