Bumble
“…and the texture of life changes.”
……………………..—Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction
Fall goldenrod rides the field,
looks for bees in a late day sun
enlarged from western fires.
A honeybee mistakes my yellow
shirt swirling open.
Aging oaks drop indifferent leaves
orange, red, and brown,
now curling on my kitchen floor.
Remember the steamboat
at the end of Steamboat Road?
my mother asks. I met a girl there
who didn’t have any shoes.
We were afraid of polio then,
and the concord grapes in the back
were covered with bees.
……
This poem is from the chapbook Two Years and Two Months by Chris Reed (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/two-years-and-two-months-by-chris-reed/
As a minister with a focus on social justice issues, Chris Reed worked with the poetry and music of worship, ceremony, prayers, sermons, eulogies and spiritual writings, including developing and writing a guide for interfaith visits, Neighboring Faiths, Beacon Press. She served the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton for 22 years and as UU Chaplain at Princeton University for ten years. Given retirement, her aging mother, the covid pandemic and a life-long love of literature, she turned to the reading and writing poetry to find meaning amid loss and confusion, and to celebrate our moments and actions that are life-affirming.
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