PART I

I once read a lick-freezing headline 
while licking honey off my spoon
one morning:
Honey Bee Colonies are Collapsing.
  
Butterfly devotee that I am,
I also worship at the altar of the Bee 
I awaken to their whirring wings 
inviting me into my chapel, the garden.
I take heed when those wing sing songs 
soaring to the rafters of my cathedral
the wide-open outdoors.

The Bees’ whirring wings 
are eternal bells 
calling my attention to life 
on Earth 
and rings around Saturn
Wings on busy bodies on Earth
raising plumes of pollen dust on flowers
offering me, mere human, sustenance on my plate.

Yes, in all of creation on this holy Earth,
I am the neediest and greediest taker
Human that I am.
I am quick to forget that lick-freezing headline
yet don’t hesitate to gorge myself on
unearned sweet love 
Bee labor as food on my plate 
Bee love as honey on my spoon.


PART II

My mind still melts in awe 
when I gorge my eyes
on NASA’s bounty of images
gorgeous Rings of Saturn 
spread thickly on my screen
like honey on my morning toast
on this swirling blue marble.

Earth. Number 3 
Saturn. Number 6
Bees. The Earthly gods of pollination and plenty else.
Saturn. The Roman god of Agriculture and plenty else.
Bees. Pollinators that may no longer be 
On Earth.
Saturn. The god of an empire that is no longer on earth 
Rome.

My kind is like imperial Rome’s Caesars
who adore the heavens while ruining the earth
the Caesars and their kind adored 
the god Saturn as Jupiter’s father
while stomping and crushing their known world
a colonial folly we have inherited
dominating the Earth as a form of worshipping 
our new god of plenty. Capitalism.

Yes, the Rings of Saturn do engender 
planet envy in this mere Earthling
yet also awakens in me the memory of Collapsing Bees
and the alien-ness of my kind
who gorge on the nourishing labor 
of pollinating and stinging Bees

Oh see the Rings around Saturn,
and those Rings around buzzing Bees.
Six sides atop the sixth planet
Hexagon
Honeycomb
Oh, the Rings of Saturn on the bodies of Collapsing Bees…

Bees. Angels of Mercy among us. 
Bees. Stinging divine magicians
Pollinating our food
While we pollute their food.
Oh come, let us sing in praise
of the Rings of Saturn on Earth
Bees. Collapsing Bees … 

PART III

Bees. Beloved kin oozing divine sweetness 
Even the Bear, the Beast in the woods, 
Knows the divinity of honeycomb sweetness,
For Human and Beast.
Yet the human-beast, pollutes where the Bee pollinates. 

Bees. Collapsing Bees …
Clothed in the rings of alien Saturn
Offering earthly sweetness
To humans who find gratitude alien.

Bees. Who in making food for themselves
give me unrequited love
Pollinating food and flowers for my round-headed species
Who pours poisons on Bees’ food
Bees.
May I and my kind
care to love You back. Now.