.
Friendly Street
the very first time I held
a comb of live bees
I was a thousand years old
today I clambered
around the hive
replacing the trellis
brood in the supers
stores in the brood
all very irregular
my hive stands four square
a William Butler Carr
the bees use upside-down
in a bee suit
I feel like a monk
in a skep
they all come out together
like office girls
for a smoke
the most precarious
manoeuvre
is the landing
attending to my bees
I wish that we were
more anthropomorphic
(after David Connearn)
I recall their giving
the flowers in the garden
season and reason
a highlight of chats
protected by your
precautionary roll-ups
The Bees of South London
there’s a contemporary novel
waiting to be written
Alison Benjamin & Brian McCallum, A World Without Bees
.