from "Findings" in Harper's Magazine, April 2010
Bees can remember human faces, but only if they are tricked into thinking we are strange flowers.
The Bee Tapping Inside Your Car's Back Window
by David Shevin
He say we goin to the same place tonight?
He say I'm a worker just like you, and I ain't hauling
no more sweets to Her Majesty until I gets paid.
He say take me to the river, cuz I gonna catch me
a mess of small fish and polliwogs.
He say do be a do-bee.
He say roll me a do-bee.
He say Malone don't you be no drone.
He say Queenie don't you be such a meanie.
He say the swarm's the thing.
He say wadchoo wave that newspaper at me for,
you know I don't care about the deregulation of nowhere
or the coronation of the ducal potentate
kiss my waspy leghairs.
He say sometime I could get hot for a hummingbird, I think big.
He say the moon's pull at harvest season seems to draw
each blossom's sweetest nectar. I am drunk with the perfumes
of all God's gardens. I give myself to pollens
and the new wind.
He say ripeness is all.
He say BUZZ, baby and Gimme some sugar.
He say gimme a comb where the wild dahlias bloom.
He say what IS this thing you call glass?
He say lookit my belly, I was raised on royal jelly.
He say I must be a Roman cuz my belly's all abdomen.
He say lookit that crow there and see how she glide.
The poem by David Shevin appeared in Bottom Dog Press Poetry Anthology: 25th Anniversary.
"Findings", the final page of every issue of Harper's Magazine, takes recent scientific research and summarizes, in a single sentence or clause, results that are surprising and often amusing.
Bees can remember human faces, but only if they are tricked into thinking we are strange flowers.
The Bee Tapping Inside Your Car's Back Window
by David Shevin
He say we goin to the same place tonight?
He say I'm a worker just like you, and I ain't hauling
no more sweets to Her Majesty until I gets paid.
He say take me to the river, cuz I gonna catch me
a mess of small fish and polliwogs.
He say do be a do-bee.
He say roll me a do-bee.
He say Malone don't you be no drone.
He say Queenie don't you be such a meanie.
He say the swarm's the thing.
He say wadchoo wave that newspaper at me for,
you know I don't care about the deregulation of nowhere
or the coronation of the ducal potentate
kiss my waspy leghairs.
He say sometime I could get hot for a hummingbird, I think big.
He say the moon's pull at harvest season seems to draw
each blossom's sweetest nectar. I am drunk with the perfumes
of all God's gardens. I give myself to pollens
and the new wind.
He say ripeness is all.
He say BUZZ, baby and Gimme some sugar.
He say gimme a comb where the wild dahlias bloom.
He say what IS this thing you call glass?
He say lookit my belly, I was raised on royal jelly.
He say I must be a Roman cuz my belly's all abdomen.
He say lookit that crow there and see how she glide.
The poem by David Shevin appeared in Bottom Dog Press Poetry Anthology: 25th Anniversary.
"Findings", the final page of every issue of Harper's Magazine, takes recent scientific research and summarizes, in a single sentence or clause, results that are surprising and often amusing.