Today's poem is The woman with bees coming out of her head by Linda Buckmaster. It is read by Samaa Abdurraqib.
The woman with bees coming out of her head
It happened one day.
The sun shone confidently.
The most pleasant of breezes tickled the tall grasses.
The bees everywhere, everywhere,
clouds of them sucking up all the sweetness of this world that they could.
White clover gave themselves over to the bees' intimate probing
as did the wildflowers
and the garden flowers
and all the flowering trees.
And so it was that a swarm of bees escaped
from the back of the woman's head,
rising in full bee buzzing, a chorus
of release and relief.
They followed her around, hovering, darting,
dancing in an ancient choreography.
She was conscious of the noise and embarrassing spectacle
of a swarm of bees coming out of the back of her head.
But what could she do? No one seemed to notice.
So she, too, gave herself over to the bees' delight, easily
finding the ripe flower heads that beckoned —
and hovering there.