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