honey ... a poem

I wrote a few poems, while I was away on Buddhist summercamp and with the poems and the sharing of them at the camp, came a valuable insight that I will share with you in my next post. 

But here for now, just the poem, inspired by a situation we had at the camp with wasps. There were a lot of them and I'm allergic to their sting so was quite weary of them and they inspired some discussion since being Buddhist we don't believe in killing them, but trying to live side by side and respect their right to be there. But they were attracted to our enormous quantities of food ... and especially the sweet HONEY!

I screw the lid of the honey

And just seconds pass

They swarm in

And hover round the rim of the glass

That delicious golden nectar

Lures them in

As it does me

In that we are kin

Late summer, they are dying

What to do?

They desperately want the honey

But hey, I want it too

I try to negotiate

Friends, you’ll get stuck down there

But being wasps, they won’t listen

They don’t care

They don’t know that either way

They are going to die

I weigh the pros and cons

And let out a sigh

                                                             

I give up, I surrender

And put down the liquid gold

Have it your way

If you won’t do as you’re told

More and more swarm in

To plunge to their certain death

Wasps, were you happy

When you let out your honey lined last breath

 

Or did you finally

have last regrets

I mean, I know

How one easily forgets

How to balance on the knifes edge

Between living life to it’s full

And giving in

To it’s addictive pull

Plunging in

To golden irresistible delight

Realize you’re stuck

And that you’ve lost your wings of flight

For you, dear wasps, too late

But I can decide to not bite the hook

Rather than try to get unstuck

Once stuck in delicious golden gook