Artwork © Richard Spisak

 

The Bee Stung

          “He cried, ‘Have I neither friend nor foe?’ and ran out           as if to throw himself into the Tiber.”
              Suetonius report on Nero’s eventual death

It was like a bee sting that struck his right ear,
Blood dripping from the graze.
An unscripted presidential speech amid
the sweltering heat in Pennsylvania hiding Death
from a bloated tyrant.
No timeline between him and an assassin,
one of whom shall die.
The rabble in America seeing the survivor
as their cult Savior
which makes me think of Nero or Mussolini,
Both narcissists who wanted to make Rome Great Again.

The president contender did not float like a butterfly,
as he ducked for cover behind the podium,
a quarry hiding from the bee round that stung
as if to remind us that we are all mortal.
His hands could not hit back at what he could not see.
Another bee always returns to sting again.
As Nero quoted Virgils’ Aeneid before he perished,
“Is it so dreadful a thing then to die?”

 

Luis Lázaro Tijerina was born in Salina, Kansas. Mr. Tijerina has a Master of Art degree in history, concentration being military history and diplomacy. He is a published author of military theory, short stories, essays and poetry. Mr. Tijerina resides in Vermont.

Richard Spisak began his artistic career as a light artist in the Lumonics Studios of Mel Tanner, a legendary Light Artist. After serving under Jack Horkheimer as a planetarium operator at the Miami Space-Transit Planetarium, he left to begin traveling with Lumist Kenvin Lyman, whose show Dazzleland Studios traveled across America. Richard later worked as a Laserist with LASERIUM and Laser Productions, served as a technical producer for the festival company PACE Concerts, and later as operations Manager and Senior Producer at WWHP and WTCN-TV in Stuart Florida.

Richard writes for Theatre, TV, radio, and the web. He published two short story collections, Two Small Windows, in a Pair of Mirror Doors, and Between the Silences. Followed by his poetry collection 7370 Allen Drive and the recently released STONE POETRY. Richard also produces “POETS of the East,” a televised webcast featuring poets from across the globe.