These dizzy-dumb bees
Thunkandthump at my window
like teenage lovers
all hapless and thirsting
for bold yellow blossoms
for balcony sirens
for call and for beckon
for opening just for them

these love-stupid bees
they don’t know what hit ‘em
again and again
flinging pollen-drunk bodies
at scrawny green thickets
impervious
bumbling
their tiny hearts thrilling
at promise of nectar
and pummeling glass

it’s themselves what hit ‘em
again and again
overshooting
careening off windows
like sun slinging rainbows
in vectors of exaltation

joy
is the fat thunk
of bees against glass
each smack
a delight
a promise of sweetness
times vast complication
plus missing the mark
equals hunting again
because don’t you know
sweetness delayed
equals bliss

some will say this is simply
a metaphor for sex
for belly
for mother
for ripe and for swell
but for me
it’s all about
dizzy-dumb bees
and tilting at windows
and divebombing sweetness
and wanting the sugar
that’s not in your mouth

Tara Campbell (www.taracampbell.com) is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction editor at Barrelhouse. Prior publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Jellyfish Review, Booth, and Strange Horizons. She’s the author of a novel, TreeVolution, a hybrid fiction/poetry collection, Circe’s Bicycle, and a short story collection, Midnight at the Organporium. She received her MFA from American University in 2019.