The Bees

I remember feeling as though
the tides had begun to change.
Someone saw a tiger in south
China, someone saw a sperm
whale off the coast of Washington,
someone felt the carrier pigeon
was returning. So intricate,
so complex, so far reaching,
we never could have imagined
we would be done in by a bug.
Farmers were among the first to notice
of course; some of them got
together to try to discover
where all the bees were hiding.
The could never have imagined
the truth. Bee keepers knew
earliest; formerly healthy
hives, once moving and breathing
as an animal does, once buzzing
constantly with life, once so
particular their keeper could
find them from a mile away
just by their smell, died
overnight, no more buzz,
no more action, no more smell.
Save for the smell of death and
decay. Those among us who
tried to warn the world were
labeled alarmists, as if we
had something to gain, who
tried to do at least something,
who knew that without the bees
we would be without an underlying
life force. Within less than
two years, we were ready to
poke each other's eyes out for
even the smallest morsel to eat.
Within four years, World War III
had begun, the first world sure
we would continue to dominate.
So far removed are we from what
makes the world's heart beat
that after all the blood was let,
after armies had used up their
rations, after we'd used up every
dirty trick we ever learned,
we found we still had nothing,
except for hunger. We overran
the poor, to steal from their
fields, and it still wasn't
enough. I've been atop this
mountain for months and I'm
quite certain I'm the very
last one left. I've been living
on sap as long as I can remember.
This poem is to commemorate
what the humans were before
we left, from Lascaux to the last
great wars for survival, our lives
were complicated and rich if
forever painful. When species
arise again from the dust of us,
I want them to know we tried our
best once (maybe that's an
overstatement), I want them to remember
our poetry and music and love,
I want them to accept there can be
none of it without the bees.

(2007)