Poem: my body is failing me (the bees returned)
Nov 12, 2020
What I want
All I really wanted
Just to live my life on high“I’ve Been High,” R.E.M.
i. <my body is failing me>
my body is failing me aging
in ways only my lover knows
with the bittersweet awareness of intimacy
and then briefly revealed disappointment
i watch my lover paint her fingernails black
her bare feet with toenails candy apple red
if i took a picture to hold her/us there
as if i could stop time from buzzing by
it still would change nothing about me
a body failing me and her there on the floor
ii. <the bees returned>
the bees returned
a couple weeks into november
a hurricane well to our south
pushing summer-like fall back
over us after a first taste of winter
honey bees and yellow jackets
swarming in the warming air
while thunderstorms surrounded us
overdressed in long sleeves and jackets
iii. <this>
i have told her everything i can so far
into a yellowing life that less remains now
but this:
bee stings swell and ache
in the cusp of fall and winter
as if it were the heart of summer
—P.L. Thomas