a poem of gratitude
The Birds and the Bees
GiaB prompt #20 animalia
Let me tell ya ‘bout the birds and the bees. And the flowers and the trees. And the moon up above. And a thing called “Love.” Jewel Akens
Birds and butterflies, thank you – you’ve taught me so much. How to perch, hover, soar. How to emerge transformed by what binds me.
But bees I’ve feared, the allergens from their sting detonating into me like water from a hose into the open mouth at the feet of my flowering siblings.
Yet I am not the sole hothouse plant in the Nursery, am I? I can learn from bees.
How to swarm in community, fertilizing others unconditionally. How to hover while tempted to wield my stinger but move on.
And, if I must sting, make my venom gentle, Love,
while my eyes, those portals inward, open further, further, further to every hue life sends via star-beams, the moon’s, the sun’s.
I can feel them now, pooling in my soul, waterfalls beneath of mystic topaz.
©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2021
So many people in the Medium community to thank!
Victor Sarkin, thank you for a wondrous prompt:
Josie Elbiry, thank you for the tag reminding me that I’d been intrigued by this prompt. Dr. Preeti Singh, thank you for your lovely poem teaching me about mystic topaz. What a gorgeous stone, reflecting ALL colors!
Dearest readers, thank you for visiting my garden with me. Dr. Preeti Singh, Imad, Pablo Pereyra, Eli Snow, Anthi Psomiadou, and Andrea Juillerat-Olvera — wanna take a shot at this? Warning. You’ve not got much time! Forgive me for that, please.
If your poem is Meant, it will Be.