May 7, 2019Free ShippingAbby E. Murray

“Someone toppled, burned and drowned hundreds of thousands of bees in Texas, and a NYT headline read: ‘There goes my honey flow.’ It made me think about how our reactions to nonstop news stories centered on loss are wildly different, creating what feels like an even wider distance between all of us. I didn’t think of honey or even pollination when I first heard about this, but the way it must feel to be drowned in a sinking structure you cannot escape, like a beehive thrown in a pond, or a sinking ship, or a burning democracy. Every day I peer into the news feeling certain I can hear it all, hold it all, that I must, but where can I keep it? I don’t write concrete poems often, but I wanted this poem to be a container for the news of honeybees burning—a fantastic, tragic image.”