Photography © Jennifer Matthews

 

First Bee of the Year

She is a honeybee.
Last year I met a carpenter bee
while descending the porch steps.
This year is more traditional.

She is alone.
She really might be the first to fly.
She is not scouting, though.
She is collecting from the wee hyacinth bells.
Her attention is on purple,
downfacing bell-wards flowers,
and not the brazen daffodils
or minute white lace-something lawn flowers.

She doesn’t mind me kneeling for video.
Maybe she met me last year?
She might return to the hive and dance,
“It’s that human again, I recognize the face.”
“He was very close and talked to me.”

Her sisters nod in agreement, confirm
the traditional start of the season.

 

Pushcart Prize nominee, researcher & farmer Terry Trowbridge’s poems are in Pennsylvania Literary Journal, MasticadoresUSA, Poetry Pacific, Carousel, Lascaux Review, Carmina, untethered, Progenitor, Miracle Monocle, Orbis, Pinhole, Big Windows, Muleskinner, Brittle Star, Mathematical Intelligencer, Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, New Note, Hearth and Coffin, Beatnik Cowboy, Delta Poetry Review, Stick Figure, miniMAG, and 100+ more. His lit crit is in BeZine, Erato, Amsterdam Review, Ariel, British Columbia Review, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Episteme, Studies in Social Justice, Rampike, Seeds, and The /t3mz/ Review. His Erdös number is 5. Terry is grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for his first two writing grants.

Poet/Photographer Jennifer Matthews’ poetry has been published in Nepal by Pen Himalaya and locally by the Wilderness Retreat Writers Organization, Midway Journal, The Somerville Times, Ibbetson Street Press and Boston Girl Guide. Jennifer was nominated for a poetry award by the Cambridge Arts Council for her book of poetry Fairy Tales and Misdemeanors. Her songs have been released nationally and internationally and her photography has been used as covers for a number of Ibbetson Street Press poetry books and has been exhibited at The Middle East Restaurant, 1369 Coffeehouses, Sound Bites Restaurant in Somerville and McLean Hospital.