Hive Light
This article is part of Issue #3
Here is a signal -
a clean dance
in locked half-light
within the heat of May,
during these pollen days
of bright intoxication.
Seeking intoxicants
of existence, we signal
status all day
a crazy dance
of more without bounds & may
feed until sick on endless delights,
awake late, burning light
in mass reproductions - toxic
water, knee-high river tides in May,
& falling leaves signalling
last moves of the dance,
on the glittering dais.
Hive debris dazes
drones who try to alight
her, feeling the queen’s dance
of cellular sexting & intoxicants,
obedient to her elegant signals,
come what may.
Her counterfeit queen, never may
remain & is forced to flee, living out days
on the outskirts, reading signals,
ascending politics, setting drones alight
& reeling in royal jelly intoxication,
making a wild wing commander out of dance.
Disappearing Disease or The Last Dance -
maids abandon the hive in dismay-
their plastic-bag knees rattle with toxins.
The end of their days is the end of our days-
our sweet struggle for hive-light
leaves us in darkness, fingering braille & signalling
for help from the fall of toxicity,
knowing the demise of their dance
signals a new time after May
ending our days of light.
This article is part of Issue #3
Extinction / Reconnection / Redesign
This issue explores Indigenous fire management in Australia, plant resilience in disasters, nature's role in conservation, innovative food initiati…
Explore Issue #3