Jaymee Thomas Poet Free verse

The Cost of Closeness

It’s hard to tell if they’re playing tag,
or thrusting nectar-drunk love at each other—
mid-June attempts at getting it.

Maybe they’re fighting over first flowers—
legs twitching in hypoglycemic half-paralysis,
like the buzz of waking mid-vacation,
still dazed, muscles aching, but that stinger,
coiled stiff for the week. 

Their terror-tails would end me,
or at least suspend me, breath held between
here and wherever histamine takes it.
I appreciate the bees, I really do,
their work, their faith in growing things.
But the anaphylactic risk of their existence
in relation to mine turns close proximity
into a kill-or-die situation:

all stabs and fury, and neither of us
wanting it to end that way.

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Valsa George June 13, 2025 at 1:56 AM Bees are admirable in many ways. But they have stings which can endanger our lives. Some bees are deadly with a kind of poison in their stings. Some people are severely allergic to their bites. My nephew has such a problem. So he avoids proximity to bees. Jaymee, stay safe, if you have that anaphylactic risk. Jaymee Thomas June 13, 2025 at 5:48 AM Yep, I carry an epi-pen every time I step foot out of the house during summer. Bees are so, so important to the ecosystem though. I hate that we have to avoid each other lol