Dispatches from the Heartland

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Remember the Bees

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Remember the Bees

My Hometown Poem #100

Suzanna de Baca
Feb 10, 2023
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Photo by M de Baca
When you feel you 
Cannot carry the load
Even one more day
Remember the bees.

There she is today
Lighting on the dahlia and the daisy
Swarming on the sunflower
Enveloped in sweet perfume 
Darting from space to place
Collecting pollen.

The task
Of the female worker bee
Is to gather food. 
She is not pollinating.
She is foraging for protein.
She lands on a flower
And wets the dry pollen 
With juices from her mouth.
She packs it onto the stiff hairs
Of her hind legs.
She packs and packs her pollen basket 
Until it is full.
Sometimes she collects the fine particles 
Accidentally
Brushing up against a flower.
Is she exhausted from her labor?
Do her tiny wings ache
When she returns to the hive?

The flower needs
The bees the bats the butterflies and moths
To create new life.
She requires their help
To move the sticky pollen 
Hidden deep inside her core
With their very bodies.
It takes the chain.
The chance meeting.
The momentary connection.

The bee flits from flower to flower
Bloom to bloom
Carrying with her
The golden dust 
The essence of fertility.
She does not know
She is indispensable.  
She does not know 
She is transcendent.
All she knows 
Is that she is gathering, working.
She is weary, so weary
From the weight of her precious cargo
But she keeps flying
And packing and giving 
Even when she does not know why.

What do you gather as you move
From place to space.
What do you leave 
Collecting and walking 
Moving and talking
Stockpiling and packing
Moving air, moving dust.
You are an essential piece of a cycle.
You may not comprehend 
That you are divine
But you are  
Part of a miracle 
Yet to be revealed 
A blossom yet to unfold.

When you feel you 
Cannot carry the load
Even one more day
Remember the bees.

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Iowa Writers’ Collaborative  

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Iowa and California
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Macy Spensley, The Creative Midwesterner, Davenport/Des Moines
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10 Comments
peg lonnquist
Mar 19Liked by Suzanna de Baca

Love this ode to bees! 🐝 Have always been amazed by them. I knew a woman administrator who wore a bee pin everyday- reminding her that they should NOT be able to fly and yet . . .

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1 reply by Suzanna de Baca
Diane Glass
Writes Diane’s Substack
Feb 11Liked by Suzanna de Baca

So touching. When my shoulders ache, I will remember those tiny wings!

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1 reply by Suzanna de Baca
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