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Cover:Close-up of bee hive in East Sussex, England taken by author
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Apis Is Spoken Here
The bee caryatids
hold up the bee maiden’s porch
situated on high, like Mt. Olympus,
overlooking rolling pastures
and agricultural field.
There two amphora hives
Stamnos shaped –
mark passageway
threshold to edge of realms
that contain all possibility
all dualities
connects portico to garden
veranda to house
air and earth gold and venom
past and present
one hive, Apollonian
the other, Dionysian
but don’t ask which is which.
Each hive, given an offering
of quartz and gold
returns love by expanding
their mysterious metropolis
with propolis.
Harbingers of manna to come
we sip our drinks and dine
the hives so near
they perfume every meal
with a heady fragrance
sweet enough
to lure the sleeping bears
of Europa.
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Dear Bees,
Make a beeline for the foxglove spire
with its ultimate freckled trumpet,
nearby is an equally waning stinkhorn
where joyous flies converge.
Did you not visit days ago?
As I moved nearer to look
a snake’s shadow slipped away
into the dark understory territory
beside the prickly holly which appears
next in line to fruit.
But you know this, don’t you?
And know too
in how many days the thistle will flower.
Sing and dance for one another,
you bossa nova bees zydeco bees
tremolo bees synecdoche bees
mbirra bees
sing and dance for us all.
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In 29 BC Virgil Asked,
What Makes the Cornfield Smile?
That which we cannot touch
or own or use
we sometimes fail to see/recognize
as fellow travellers
in the realm of love
They may sting you god bless them
or hover nearer
to explore your beard;
(So reminiscent
of last spring’s swarming)
it’s their choosing
not ours
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Lynne Shapiro © 2020
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Lynne Shapiro's work has been published in such journals as CV2 (Canada), Myselxia (England), Platte Valley Review, and terrain.org and included in anthologies such as Decomposition: An Anthology of Fungi Inspired Poems and Eating Her Wedding Dress, A Collection of Clothing Poems. She recently returned from Santa Lucia, Spain, where she participated in a Beetime arts residency.