THE BEEKEEPER'S PICNIC is a Poem about my reflections about the arts and crafts of being a Beekeeper...which I was for about eight years, in Oakland, California...with my one hive perched above a Stream on Trestle Glen Road...I still hold a fond place in my heart for Bees and their Lives, which are Wonderful Lives...too bad I'm very allergic to them now...I can only love them from afar...sigh....

THE BEEKEEPER'S PICNIC

the beekeepers are
having a picnic
every other food
and drink besides
is loaded with honey
citrus honey and
eucalyptus honey and
orange honey and
wildflower honey
and even
grape-vine honey
apple honey
almond honey
you name it
you taste it
you tell them
all about how
you used to keep
bees as if any one
could actually
'keep' bees and how
you got stung so bad
you almost died
and couldn't breathe
but how you wish you
could still 'do' the bees
while the little ladies
in the meantime
are flyin and buzzin all
about and the drones
at the front door are
checking out the chances
that they'll be allowed
to stay and the smell
of honey in the sun
of beeswax in the soft heat
of this autumn day
those smells are enough
they are enough
and I am right back
peering into their golden brown
buzzery world where I would
not survive one second
and they are going to winter
over yes they are
to see another spring to
send out the women to haul
in the nectar feed the kiddies
build the house and hive
with their own legs and wings
and will still I have learned
so much from bees I can't
begin to know how to
tell you and then
one bee pauses mid-flight
circles me twice and
moves on and I am left
with honey and soul and hive
and heart and in the sunlight
bees
more bees
and
bees