Summer's End

by Rebecca Leidner
(Madison, WI)

What's troubling the bees?
Reports come back to the hive, not good,
the messengers glum,
no one feels much like dancing:
rain upon rain, drought, illness, famine.

Not like the old days when a bee
could browse for hours among a million blossoms,
come home all a-buzz from a day of prairie-making,
drunk on sweet nectar,
the sunlight still dusting his wings.

What's killing the bees?
The world has changed, but they cannot.
Now in their silent, dreary chambers
the last ones mingle, disconsolate,
Dying of a broken heart.



Site Owner's Comment: Thank you very much Rebecca for this heart-wrenching poem. Please let's hope we can reverse the bee decline befor it is too late! 'Dying of a broken heart' - yes, it feels like we really are betraying our wonderful bees.