red honey as a result of bees feasting on cherries

by Jamie Kim-Worthington

cover photo by Manjot Aulakh

mel means honey,

and honey means indulgence. lavishly milked

from honeycomb, honey means

the-first-hand-up in a class-of-twenty,

first-declension-nouns in latin,

“Defeated” by Manjot Aulakh

“One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though ... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope.” ― Steven Deitz

first-row seats in communion.

honey means first place. only the best boys get to be sweet.

and think of honey riddled with parasites. oleander honey,

do you know? honey steeped in oleander flowers

becomes entirely toxic. parasitic honey,

spooned out, available for the taking.

to write down bee patterns, thoughts, would be to cut lace,

to defile the painstakingly tedious work

that the bees have put in in order to be secret.

to do that would be akin

to drowning bees in clay,

cementing their little bodies in the still-wet, pliable soil.

we don’t want that (no matter

how appealing molds of ancient bees would be)

we don’t want that for them.

bees cry, actually. they miss their squished friends.

and the holy bees, the archbishops and pontifex maximi,

cry out CRIMINAL at our feet. 

whose body is this they grovel

whose body is this?

red honey as a result of bees feasting on cherries: https://mmerope.tumblr.com/post/656908812429721600/visual-detox-red-honey-as-a-result-of-bees