I'm collecting my seeds in the garden when a bee lands on my nose.
She climbs up and looks in my right eye. This is what she says.
I can see in your eye
you will listen to me.
What I tell
you is true,
I mean true
to a bee.
Well at least true to me.
Plant
Narcissus in the sun.
and Hostas under trees.
Only then
will nectar flow
And be here
for the bees.
Why me? I
ask.
She lifts her front left leg and looks at the sky.
I need YOU, she says to me.
You have the right sized claws
to rake the compost soft and smooth
and sift it with your paws.
You know I can pollinate flowering grape.
I'm exactly the size that it needs.
I gather pollen and bring it home.
But I cannot plant the seeds.
I need YOU to propagate,
and plant,
and cut, and prune.
I need you
to gather seed,
and plant
that seed In June.
Plant the mosses with the rocks.
Keep the soil damp.
Moss will shade the soil for
the microbe and the ant.
Moss will shade the soil for
the microbe and the ant.
Plant purple Crocus underground.
Only in the
fall.
You see they
come up in the spring
and grow 3
inches tall.
Plant the Iris by the pond
the fish waste feeds the root.
The fish will help, they have no choice
they always need to poop.
The bee stops talking. She waits for me to answer. I look down into the pond and think.
After a little while I say quietly to her that I don't mind learning, if she will teach me.
And she does.
I work all day and go to sleep happy.
The next morning I wake up at 7 and poke my nose out.
I stop and stare.
There is SNOW on the ground. And ICE.
The purple Crocus flowers look beaten down with broken petals in the ice.
The creeping phlox is covered with snow.
Ice is everywhere.
I go to find the bee.
I look inside the kinds of holes she likes.
I look inside the daffodils.
They shine like the sun.
Inside a daffodil I find her. She isn't moving but I can see she's alive.
After a while I look around me. I see the Narcissus and Hostas. And I hear a sleepy voice.
Six Narcissus in the sun
are now beneath the snow.
The Hostas planted under trees
just one day ago
are pushing snow up with their spears
from their roots below.
Soon enough the ice will go.
Bees will wake up. Plants will grow.
Wait and work. The ice will go.
And with the bee's voice in my ear I go back to work.
I work all day and go to sleep happy.
The next morning I wake up at 7 and poke my nose out.
I stop and stare.
There is SNOW on the ground. And ICE.
The purple Crocus flowers look beaten down with broken petals in the ice.
The creeping phlox is covered with snow.
Ice is everywhere.
I go to find the bee.
I look inside the kinds of holes she likes.
I look inside the daffodils.
They shine like the sun.
Inside a daffodil I find her. She isn't moving but I can see she's alive.
After a while I look around me. I see the Narcissus and Hostas. And I hear a sleepy voice.
Six Narcissus in the sun
are now beneath the snow.
The Hostas planted under trees
just one day ago
are pushing snow up with their spears
from their roots below.
Soon enough the ice will go.
Bees will wake up. Plants will grow.
Wait and work. The ice will go.
And with the bee's voice in my ear I go back to work.
