mace

.

---

some other bees & their nests

(I) science tells us

progress is not

blind chance

it relies upon

the elimination

of waste

& the making good

of what was begun

in another generation

(II) one

as leaves

on a tree

so bees

in a colony

form one

organism

(III) as a rule

the solitary bee

who finds a nest

does not furnish it

the solitary bee

who furnishes a nest

does not find it

(IV) Reaumur’s Upholsterer Bee (a bee of the Continent)

she lines her nest

with neat

layered petals

from poppies

or convolvulus

smoothes the wrinkles

& then folds

the petals

over the egg

(V) Fabre’s surprise

I have surprised

the Girdled Anthidium

in cohabition

with a Bembex wasp –

both living in peace

intent upon their business

(V) Fabre’s osmia

hail snow-capped

   Ventoux!

where snow-white almond

   blossom’s fall

& now the three-horned

   osmia

emerges from the spiral

of a discarded

   snail shell

partitioned to provide

   a small & large cell

for one male & one female

   per labyrinth

respecting its neighbours

osmia prefer

   to die

rather than force their way

through the cocoon

   of another bee

(VI) the cardin’ o’ it

                                             carder          form     line
                                       the             bees           a          &

                                                                moss                moss

                                                   pass                  pass                  pass

                                                              moss                moss

                                           between          until          nest      fluffed

                                          them           the           is

Herbert Mace, Some Other Bees, Butterflies and Moths

J. H. Fabre, tr. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, Bramble Bees and Others

           

.