Bee-Dom

In the morning of knowledge,
in the labor of love,
the young bee rushes,
a seeker of nectar,
questing for life itself.
 
Upon the common farm
the workers struggle,
yet the gatherer’s hoard
is enclosed,
and the comb swells with wealth.
 
The frugal queen,
with her ledger of days,
binds the hive
in dream and beauty,
by restless ideals.
 
What can be passed on
is but the taste of sweat,
the salt of blood,
the flavor of phlegm—
a hard, unyielding method
for the distant promise
of a single drop of honey.
 
Like a hungry peasant
digging the soil,
sowing seed,
the harvest of revolution
is to be reaped
by the divine queen.
 
And in the end,
there is only the barrier of rule,
the sorrow of freedom unmet,
and above the hive’s dominion
the uncommon death—
the noble life
of the worker-bee.