Elinor Oberlin - The Cat

The Plight of the Bumblebee


Once a bumblebee took flight
Through the forests of the night.
Drunk on pickled honeydew,
He was spoiling for a fight.
He zig-zagged back and forth through trees-
Primordial conifers they were-
His radar was in disrepair
He bumped his way with great un-ease
He flew and flew a long long way
It must have been about a mile-
(A mile is longer to a bee
Than ten are to a human child.)
But never could he find a foe
He could deem worthy of the test
And so he lighted on a tree
And thought to take a little rest

As Fate decreed it, on that night
The tree trunk wept its bitter tears
Of sticky yellow resin fluid
The bee had eyes, but had no ears
That tidal wave of golden goo
Caught up his bee feet in the ooze,
Engulfed him in his splendid youth
His wings, legs, and body too
T’was all so very long ago -
About a million years or so.
You’re asking me just how I know
I have the evidence in my hand
A golden bauble from the land
Where trees were gradually petrified
And where their tears hardened and died
And here’s the bee preserved intact-
Each gauzy wing is poised to act
As if to fly away anew
In search of foe –or honeydew.


(September 2004)

Elinor Oberlin

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-cat-6/