~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The city is a beehive~
hexagons stacked,
each buzzing with activity
morning, noon, and night.
Streets: wax-thin, sticky with footsteps.
Buildings: golden, leaning into each other,
their windows humming with fluorescence.
Every corner is a chamber~
workers trailing in, workers trailing out,
carrying briefcases instead of pollen.
The queen? She’s a rumor~
a shadow in the penthouse,
counting her hexagons,
her kingdom of glass.
And the honey?
Oh, the honey is the noise~
the honk and clatter,
the murmured deals,
the laughter pooling
in elevators,
thick as syrup.
We are all bees here,
dizzy with purpose,
lost in the comb.
poem originally written for and submitted to Ultramarine Literary Review for its urbanity contest, Febrary 21, 2026.
Yes, In God We Trust,
but alas!
We break that trust like beehives
and poisonously sting with wrongful convictions
and destroy innocent lives !
(07.14.2025)
Amid the recent snowfall, is a sunny, yellow cascade;
For, jasmine blooms are now plunging, in cold shade.
Stark trees are forever shivering, though much alive;
Dreaming of the purple birds, and lonesome beehives.
Jasmine is blooming, on every fence and green trellis,
Like rainbow that lingers; when it has much to tell us!
The street of pink-blue skies, now brings ready smiles;
To see myriad florets, on one of nature's snowy aisles.
Migrant bees swarming to the flowers
Passing through the beam of sunrays
The best ones are meeting the rain
The feared ones hiding the round petals
So tired for the whole day working
Gathering nectar for the seers and queen
This is the responsibility of a lowly worker
Working his butt out for love and loyalty
The beehives must content abundant honey
For the existence of nature and humanity.
Bees are such busy workers
They collect pollens and nectars
For their food at beehives
Because of to much work the whole day
They sometimes sleep in flowers' petal
In the morning when they wake up they goes
Back to beehives with their pollens and nectars
Pollens are best source of protein for bees
Bees has short live lifespan
If they are going to die, they die outside beehives
So they will not be a liability to others about their corpse
Nature may not survive without bees
They are the courier of pollination
I wonder if bees are not present in environment
We can't see flowers, we can't see fruits
We can't see vegetables and other flowering plants
Bees are integral parts of human and nature existence.
In nature's design, six is the key to all life alive.
Hexagons in petals, snowflakes, and beehives thrive,
In music, blues and roots groups play the six-stringed guitar.
With songs made with a hexatonic blue note, added to each bar.
Six key chemical elements there when life first sprang
Were the notorious Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Sulfur, Phosphorus gang.
He remembers it before it arrives,
To collect a far one hundred miles drives,
To keep stalling payment his life deprives,
Better he ended up in beehives…
The end of every month full of meaning,
It’s a female worker’s time for preening:
In a sense, a life of subordination;
No envying other’s ordination,
Especially after allowances;
Just watch out for Michael Jackson’s dances!
In bed strong muscles completely inert,
Until their owner receives credit alert;
Boss wins the heart of a worker through wage:
The ones who split it their workers’ strength cage…
A promise of the life of “hand to mouth”
It has been the same story North and South.
You don’t wait, when an old mouth had gone out;
You’re asking for The Tormented’s sure shout
The Truth: worker’s wage plus his boss chance tips:
That way boss sure praises on his lips…
I find beauty in the unkempt places ~~
Sticky beehives with perfectly formed combs,
A child's playground sea of dirty faces,
An overgrown garden with ugly gnomes,
Sagging gables of long-deserted homes.
I look for more than people likely see ~~
Wondrous events occurring in past tense,
Places long untouched, lovely by degree,
Feelings of beauty lit from innocence,
Well-crafted stories hinging on suspense.
I long for beauty in the dour mundane ~~
Making the minus a clear positive,
Finding some loveliness in the profane,
To be learned in the raw provocative,
Turning low grades into superlative.
[LIFE]
SECOND PLACE WINNER
Written July 1, 2022
For "It's All About Three Q's" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Constance La France
[15-10 syllable lines in 3 Stanzas checked by HMS
The ababb of the English Quintain with rhymes
checked with Rhyme Zone]
#16 on Poetry Soup's 100 Best New Poems List
August 24, 2022
#20 on Poetry Soup's 100 Best New Poems List
August 15, 2022
Pooh, plush with his turned-up snout,
pleased; peeked out the wide window.
He prompt a mouth sigh, breathed out,
placid with life, holding his pillow.
Seized by magic of nature
and buzzing noise, means there's bees.
Out the door happy creature,
beehives beneath limbs and shade of trees.
Pooh and Cricket walk, a trail
laced in rainbow wildflowers.
A sniff they took, and a snail
slowly crawl out look for spring showers.
Fluttering butterfly lands
on Pooh's nose, twas so funny.
A bouquet and snail in hands,
towards home with jugs full of honey.
2/6/2022
Nursery Rhyme
When I was with my love
I did not fear the blows of fate,
nor the poison in time's chalices,
nor the heatwave,
nor the snowstorm,
neither the news of war's snake that bites,
when I was with my love.
I could reduce war to the sound of the drums,
be brave without any vice, and torture that
lies in the wait, like cat in the bag,
when I was with my love,
I was the daredevil who ran the show,
twisted hate to love in bloom, the devil
of misfortune and abuse into peace,
when I was with my love,
I stuck my head in beehives
and my hands in God's sleeves,
or in rabbit holes, admiring
those minions' accomplishment,
when I was with my love, clear-eyed
and glued to faith and optimism,
my eternal delight,
when I was with my love, I
laid siege to love's firewall,
questioned nothing, happy as a light footed rabbit
scanning the meadow, oh how I wish I was still
with my lover.
Double minded souls, everyone knows that a complete soul is in Jesus shouting Woe. His beauty is in righteousness and his glory is indefinite. Stay focus, don’t be outrageous but be courteous to all ages. Their will be a day when the Lord will call you, he may call you home or he may call you to spread the truth. My day is now, the Lord has made a sound that I would find his lost sheep and rescue them from ocean’s deep. Everyone has a purpose, a will for their lives, when God made the bees, their purpose was to pollinate the flowers and make honey in their beehives. Staying in God’s word will open your mind and if your good in chess, Praise Jesus because your one of a kind. So when you lived your whole life, when you are all old and grey, remember what you did for Jesus and stand up to worship and pray. God Bless!
Welcome Spring
Pastel blue skies
Sun-filled fervour days
Awakening nature
Life's blithe behavior
Rain showers
Leaves waver
Puddles sprout
Seedlings about
Blossoms sing
In vibrant gardens
Robins bring
Morsels to starving calls
Caterpillars crawl
Butterflies flit
Bees buzz in
Around beehives
Bears prize
Flowing rivers rise
Laughter filled outdoors
Welcome Spring
Welcome Savior
3/29/2021
There once was an apiarist named Clive
Who kept his beehives inside
One day a bee stung
Old Clive on his tongue
Clive ate that poor bee alive
Spells of luscious sound and wondrous vision
bells that fill the air with mystic tones
wells of crystal cascades sating endless thirst
dells a golden haunt for clustered stones
Wings propel red robin’s noonday flight
rings affirm a passion spanning many lives
things we hoard and blindly cast away
Kings and Queens who feast at royal beehives
it’s mild and sunny
warm and funny
i feel alive and perky
can it be that it's spring so soon?
my body feels vibrantly alive
my insides as jittery as five beehives
sure spring rolls around yearly
but doesn't it seem just a wee bit early?
still i have these urges i can’t deny
to jump reach up and touch the sky
to dance and laugh openly with joy
make friends with every girl and boy
the sun shines so flamboyantly
can it be that springtime's here
and knocking at my door?
AP: 2nd place 2020
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