The news seems to be such a flexible subject these days. North/East/South/West which direction distorts the best? Today I offer my take on the news informed by the African honey bees’ transcontinental story. As you may know, a Brazilian geneticist decided to breed hard-working African bees with mild mannered and somewhat lazy European bees. The desired result was hard-working mild mannered bees. It didn’t quite work (although honey production went up exponentially and made him a load of money.) It seems that African bees stayed up later (dusk being the ideal time for mating) and flew higher (queen bees picking their consorts from the highest flyers) with the result that there was far more African bee to African bee mating. Now the West is full of African bees who have gone wild. What is the relationship of African bees to the news? Survival. Looking at the bees gives us all lessons in survival. The news as given can cause us to despair, lose hope, give up when what we need to do is stay up later and fly higher.
television newscast
death is dropped
onto my plate each evening
pressed between big game scores
and electronic weather report
abbreviated newsprint
punctuated with glossy photos
cut away to open graves
large spiny mouthfuls
of my dead relatives
are stuffed between
my clenched teeth
and tight jaw.
tears run
from the corners
of my eyes.
they ask me to eat my dead
swallow them whole
neat like a shot
of two hundred year old bourbon
distending my belly
leaving no waste
they ask me to consume my dead
and maintain my peace, my place
each evening the days counting
is brought out, skimmed across the globe
platters of dried and delicate babies
mixed with brittle forgotten elders
next to tureens of enraged impaled mothers
those who only needed to eat
those who rotted from man made diseases
those who imploded because their bodies
simply refused to fight anymore
a roster of those killed or wounded in battle
civilization’s unavoidable causalities
a portion of suffering piled high
presented with a flourish
cacophony of applause
now, open wide
chew. cut to commercial
but, we have been taught
about eating the dead
that it is not to be done, unless
it is the heart for valor,
the muscles for strength,
the soul for forbearance
the mind for history
eating their expendable
their unneeded
their discarded
the bones cracking beneath teeth
scratching holes into lungs
this modern day cannibalism
is always painful.
so, i have begun to feed on life
to feed on life
to watch the african honey bees
who move and nest
and move and nest
migrating across continents
gathering, building and stinging
all who dare to exploit
the sweetness of their honey
i come, you see from people
who have lived for eons
making peace with deadly bees
while harvesting their lush syrups
yes, i have begun to feed on life`
to feed on life
which tastes bitter at times
and sticky like melon juice
or sharp like tree bark
feeding on life
studying bees
learning to sting
fashioning a stronger hive.
devorah major
(from street smarts)