Statuary Analysis

Bees may be trusted, always,

        to discover the best, nay, the only



human, solution. Let me cite



                an instance; an event, that,



though occurring in nature, is still

        in itself wholly abnormal. I refer



to the manner in which the bees



        will dispose of a mouse

                                        or a slug



        that may happen to have found its way

into the hive.



                        The intruder killed,



        they have to deal with

                                        the body,



        which will very soon poison



their dwelling. If it be impossible



        for them to expel or dismember it,

they will proceed methodically



                & hermetically



        to enclose it in a veritable sepulcher

of propolis & wax,



                which will tower fantastically



above the ordinary monuments

        of the city.



                *



                        When we die

        our bodies powder, our bodies



        the vessel & the vessel

empties.



                Our dying does not fill

the hive with the stench



        of dying. But outside

                                the world hungers.



                A cockroach, stung,

can be dragged back out.



                A careless child



        forced a snail inside with a stick once.

        We waxed over the orifice of its shell



                sealing the creature in. And here,



the bottom of the comb,

                                        a mouse,

        driven in by winter & lack.



        Its pawing woke us. We stung it



                        dead.



        Even before it died it reeked - worse

the moment it ceased

                        twitching.



                                        Now everyday

        we crawl over it

                            to pass outside,



the wax form of what was



                staring out, its airless sleep,



                        the mouse we built

        to warn the rest from us.

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