<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each bee must be her own queen,
\nnot live in a colony.
\nBurrow in the ground along a path
\nor build the nest in a dead plant stem
\nor stack of empty flowerpots.
\nTo line the nest, cut neat circles out
\nof rose leaves and petals.
\nStock it with nectar and seal.
\nLeave the young but tell them:
\nyou have one year, including the season
\nwhen you\u2019ll sleep beneath a screen of wax.
\nOnce you\u2019re out, dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plants, I\u2019m sorry there\u2019s no music.
\nNo Vivaldi to calm you while you\u2019re watered.
\nNo Puccini to rouse you to blossom,
\nHolst to march you to symmetry.
\nNo Charlie Parker tickles you into variegation.
\nNo Mussorgsky reminds you of the wonder of the world,
\nand its madness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still can\u2019t bear to listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But do you hum to some far-off celestial tune I\u2019m guessing at
\nin the silence
\nwhere I flourish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She leaves me in the house without a car.
\nIt\u2019s laundry day and dishes must be done.
\nI\u2019ll make some suppers for the coming week,
\ndo taxes at the scarred kitchen table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She leaves me in the house without a scar.
\nI deal with cash and dirt as I\u2019m able.
\nThe table where we eat is scratched and stained.
\nI leave it all and go out to the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scar I wear is elemental, one.
\nUnlovable: survive by being meek.
\nAnd disappear where others strive to seek.
\nShe leaves me as I strain to guess her star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I leave her with small grace, as I\u2019m able.
\nThe house will hold our voices, low and strained.
\nThe scar supports the work I do, have done.
\nShe leaves, I leave, neither going far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rules for Life as a Bee Each bee must be her own queen, not live in a colony. Burrow in the ground along a path or build the nest in a dead plant stem or stack of empty flowerpots. To line the nest, cut neat circles out of rose leaves and petals. Stock it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}