tell it to the bees

Another Black man gunned down

death penalty for speeding

Tell it to the bees, she said

Another First Nation Woman

found frozen to death

Tell it to the bees she said

New Jim Crow in Georgia

Trans Ban in Alabama

you know what she said

I went to the hive

in bare skin

I told them

I told it all

Two of them stopped

and began to expand,

to balloon,

bumbling,

dancing,

the pollen on their legs

grew too

I sneezed

They tumbled over

Then sat down at the two rockers

on the back porch

I told them again

They hung their heads

They had no wise words

Just promised to keep making honey

and said thank you for telling them

we should always tell them

I saw myself

in their enormous

mirror eyes