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Syndic Literary Journal

Alienation ~ Two Bees

Narrated by Betsy Miller

Rhode Island

Lawrence Ferlinghetti – Alienation: Two Bees

I came upon them in the cabin-

     the angry one at the window

          and the old bent one on the bed

 the one at the window buzzing & buzzing

                   beating its wings on the window

                                          beating the pane

   the one on the bed

              the silent one with the bent frame

                                    alone on the counterpane

I didn’t mean to kill them

    but the one in the window

                                wouldn’t be waved

                                              back into his hive

        the door was open and he knew it

                      and flew in it for a moment

                            and then flew back

                                          away from his community

Something had alienated him

                        and he would not go back

    or was it perhaps

                            the wounded one on the bed

                                    who kept him

I tried to get him to fasten onto

                                          a crumpled page

                                               of the local news

                         but he would not

And I must have hurt him doing that

                                  for he fell on the bed

                                                and died in an instant

                 stretching out his legs

                                                    or arms

          as if to his comrade or lover

               who crawled a quarter-inch toward him

                     and then hunched up

                         into a very small furry ball

                             and was still

                                  and would not move again

As all at once outside

                                  the hive hummed louder

      with a million mild conformists

                                 with wild antennas bent

Not one flew out to wake the dead

No messenger was sent

    

 

Compiled/Published by LeRoy Chatfield
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