Katharine The Bee Landlady

THE BEE LANDLADY

 In early evening’s honeyed light 

Here amidst the tangled oaks

I smoke the bees

With the lavender they love

I hum to the hives

to honour their being

I harmonise

With the rise and fall of bee buzz music

I brush the hives so tenderly

Nothing rushed

Each moment 

Each movement mindful

I watch bees gently sip 

On drops of gold

In the heart of the buzzing brood box

They busy around their Queen

Who breeds and leads the bees 

through mother love

I do not clip her wings or paint her

And I hardly harvest honey

I am simply a landlady

Trading a well-swept home

For a little liquid gold

I’ve always had 

a yearning for learning

I bring people to the woods

To be with bees

Teenagers 

And refugees

And tiny children young as three

Bees can put the softest smile

On the toughest teenager’s face

Bees teach

life and death

the sweet and the sting

the awe and the fear

the being-ness of being here

in the moment

Bees teach timelessness

they live for six weeks

and for one hundred million years

such purpose

in their short-lived lives