Pause for poetry:
Michael Hawkes /8
Insect“O”cide
A poem by Michael Hawkes
We love to love the worker bee,
Labouring conscientiously
To serve the queen, the hive and colony.
On relating to its purpose
We feel it wouldst behoove us
Thus to serve our own society.
With a backhand flip we swat a fly,
Stunned, belly up, we’ll watch it die
Or smear it with another swipe
And never pause to question why
This casual murder is alright.
When not busy at the hive
The bee’s investigating scented flowers…
Whereas the fly, ugh! Those bulging eyes!
Prefers the foulest excrement
In which to while away the hours,
Defecating, fornicating, replicating – laying eggs,
In the offal it devours!!!
Lawd! Bless the humble bumble bee, in its bumbling lonesome majesty.
Welcome to my garden, come pollinate my home,
Come lecture to my children with your pacifying drone,
Poke your nose in all our flowers, treat them as your own
Then sticky up your whiskers on this piece of honeycomb.
03/07/20 Hawkes
Feature image: Colin Durfee via StockPholio.net
Read also: other poems
This was just in time for National Honey Bee Day, August 15!
So true Michael’s thoughts on the bee and the fly. The bee, a welcomed guest, for all it does, while the fly,.. the fly seems nothing more than an unwelcomed pest. For some the bees’ sting is death while the fly struggles for life in a spiders web. For others seeking un-ending wealth, the bee is expendable, the result of commercial pesticides.
Wonderful poem to remind us that Nature has no favorites, no one is pretty or ugly
useful on worthless. Would that I had a garden to welcome the “nosy” bee or orb
weaver spider intent on her web repair!