Truemors
Honeybees busy at work.
Sylvia Plath's "Arrival of the Bee Box" seems apropos:
I ordered this, clean wood box
Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.
The box is locked, it is dangerous.
I have to live with it overnight
And I can't keep away from it.
There are no windows, so I can't see what is in there.
There is only a little grid, no exit.
I put my eye to the grid.
It is dark, dark,
With the swarmy feeling of African hands
Minute and shrunk for export,
Black on black, angrily clambering.
How can I let them out?
It is the noise that appalls me most of all,
The unintelligible syllables.
It is like a Roman mob,
Small, taken one by one, but my god, together!
I lay my ear to furious Latin.
I am not a Caesar.
I have simply ordered a box of maniacs.
They can be sent back.
They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner.
I wonder how hungry they are.
I wonder if they would forget me
If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree.
There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades,
And the petticoats of the cherry.
They might ignore me immediately
In my moon suit and funeral veil.
I am no source of honey
So why should they turn on me?
Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free.
The box is only temporary.
I'm also quite fond of Sonny Boy Williamson's metaphorical use of honeybees:
I want you to come on, baby
Now and take a walk with me
I want you to come on, baby
Now and take a walk with me
Well, then I show you this won't nothin' bother you
I'll be yo'r little honey bee
I will make you honey in the mo'nin'
Now an I will make you honey at night
Now I will make you honey in the mo'nin'
Now an I will make you honey at night
Now then, I will make you honey three times a day
Baby, if you would just treat me right, now
Well, we will take a walk out in the park
Now an sit down un' some little shade tree
We will take a walk out in the park
Now an sit down un' some little shade tree
Well now you said that I was your baby
And that I could be yo little honey bee
I want to hold you in my arms
Baby, an I want you to hold me tight now
I want to hold you in my arms
Baby an I want you to hug me tight
Now because you said that I was yo honey bee
An I could make your honey just right.
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