The Bumble Bee
Color attracts the bumblebee. She slips into the golden Daffodil tunnel wedging her head into the creases and folds, rubbing against the pistil and stamen. Symbiosis. This is how life feeds on life, how life gives to life.
Praise be Life and always hold Death in the same refrain with a tenderness and respect because they are infinitely intertwined.
The blankets of stone colored clouds in the sky lay down overhead and turn everything to shadow. When the swelling barrier breaks water comes down drenching and quenching the earth.
Yet Bumblebee is caught in the downpour and with the sun being gone things get cold abruptly, disruptingly.
Her movements slow, her wings contract, and her billions of fractal eyes close. To reserve that life energy is essential…. but alas night falls.
In the morning just as the brilliant hot sun, two planets away, hovers on the horizon, the boy opens the screen door and leaps out of the house with scissors in one hand and a basket in the other. He intends to pick a bouquet of flowers for the breakfast table… it being easter and all.
He didn’t notice the bee hidden inside the yellow nest of a flower until he was back inside. He thought it dead at first, but then leaning in he whispered, “hello, friend. I love you.”
The bumble bee moved ever so slightly. Was it his breath on the whisper or the whisper on the breath that moved that little soul? The boy grabbed the sugar jar off the counter and ran to the sink. he mixed equal parts water and sugar then dipped his finger in it and dabbed some on the wooden counter in front of the fuzzy little creature. With patience and great focus the little bee unfurled her tongue and drank, long sips that turned into gulps. Bumblebee gulps. Over the course of a few hours, he watched her gain strength as she wiggly walked up and down his arm and cuddled into the creases of his palm. He watched, mesmerized as she stretched her wings. Like unveiling her musical instrument, a hum and a buzz and flutter, the vibration of her wings gave her a touch of levity. He understood her language and bowed his finger down for her to climb aboard and carefully charioted her to the open window. She flew off into a brilliant sun.
