Home before dark

Home before dark

One melliferous summer

in the meadow of their labor

like upstart workers

who dabbled in nectar

they shocked the royal chamber.

Rose in rebellion

these two bleeding hearts

satisfied their impatience

by thrashing out forget-me-nots

and letting their passion flower.

He was a warehouse guard and would-be singer

of whirring love song serenades.

She was impressionable

with taffy-like charm

sent to harvest the field

and return with the yield

reserved for use

in sweet jellies they made.

Such was the pace, that melliferous summer

each in their place, on Queenie’s Farm.

Each passage to the depot

was a rendezvous

close to the swarm of workers

waxing and waning.

She was the strangest ( some thought bizarre )

with her tattoo ( or was it a scar?).

He was older and she was new.

Convention made their feelings taboo.

So, he sang for her, of love, amid the lilacs.

touched her, yet all the while refraining.

“Home before dark”

was “Queenie’s” rule

a natural law, they all obeyed…

until that curious summer’s eve

when a harvester could not be found

nor the guard/protector of their ground.

Yet, both were safe in the lilac grove

secretly meeting as lover’s might do

sharing the setting sun, the evening dew

and a secret they could not believe.

There in the flowers and fading light

they discovered her adulthood.

The once shy and sterile collector

had morphed to pheromonal extremes

and enticed him to fulfill his destiny.

He had found his perfect harmony!

Perhaps it was a lack of royal jelly

or genetic code misunderstood

that delayed her transformation

from honeybee to Queen of his dreams.

She flew high on his musical buzz.

He followed the scent of her calling.

When they joined, in ecstasy

his life drained away, it rushed

and, frozen, he dropped like a hailstone.

She swooped down to her first drone

but a ponderous weight fell over her

as though the sky was falling.

She had no choice she had to sting.

once, twice…too late, she was crushed.

The girl of the fields and the warehouse guard

met at twilight in their secret lilac spot.

She had blossomed to a woman, somehow.

So, he sang to her as a lover.

When they touched, the ecstasy

made them realize their destiny.

They had found perfect harmony!

Rolling and thrashing in forget-me-nots

she got stung, not once, but twice.

How could they explain this, to Queenie, her Mother?

Shooting stars above

forget-me-nots beneath

love in her baby-blue eyes

foregoing a bridal wreath

they sowed their wild oats.

One day in Springtime

from out of her labor

a daughter was born

as sweet as nectar

she was shocked…

When they named her, “Queenie.”