Letters to the Queen

Dear Highness

         Majesty

         Mother

         Queen,

Perhaps you can

help me.  It is

early March and

I am concerned

about a hive of

my bees.  I have

found my queen

in the top box.

She was marked

green.  But I saw

only a few larva,

some brood,

not a solid egg

pattern and so

so many painfully

small drones.

Should I replace

her with someone

younger?  Is she

worn out?  What

should I do?  I was

thinking I could buy

a virgin or a mated

queen.  Will I risk

disease?

Worried in the Apiary,

James

Dear James,

This is an interesting

question.  What you

have is a drone-laying

queen!  Kill her.

The hive needs a virgin

or a fully mated queen.

The Queen

Americans Dot the Dusk

social

neatness like

a

patched

thought

               stark crayon

                              a torrent

of                           chill

               tendrils

the voice of

               scorching

high in the air

               briefly peering

back

(1-inch window, right-hand margin, p. 22-28)

Autumn Grade

               time

               a

blue-white diamond

to live

               on

               a

ray of

               jade-green

               wood

               this

slow-dawning

trackless

dusk coming

leaf-less trees

(1-inch window, left-hand margin, p. 14-21)

Cobus Creek

Outside Heroic

choice

               women

               delicate

bones

                              the eye

                              sockets

               a

               fine

               narrow bridge

                              a marked

               way of looking

                              the

truck gardener’s

                              toil

(1-inch window, left-center margin, p. 11-12)

West of Town

there’s currant and

cabbage

as much as

the

faded spring

rose

(1-inch window, right-hand margin, p. 8-10)