commonbees, pollen-sifters

a poem by riley minteer

 

You can find me in the fields,

catching water bugs,

and small red beetles.

You will find me in the grass,

sifting through all of the things I have left.

 

sifting through dollops of honey

and gin

sifting through well-rusted lockets and tins

o’er high hills comes sweet-smelling winds

carrying over pollens from yore,

drifting from to city to city once more...

 

twenty years later i sit in my yard

with my cats and my children in the heart of new york,

new york

a faint, yet audible buzzing awakes me from my nap,

and as i wake i see a flow‘r on my lap.

how could this be?

how could this happen?

i’m surrounded by non-ornamental hedge plants!

 

i look to the sky and see a faint glisten,

for i've seen it now as i’ve seen it before

i breathe in the sweet smell of my youth from yore,

drifting from city to city once more...