The Hive

Thousands of bees built a six-foot,

300-pound hive between the back of

the fireplace and an outside wall.

AP Release

In the pocketed dark

behind fireplace brick, sprawls

a hidden house of light. Almost all

window: an amber stain

transfusing the thousand-times-a-thousand

six-sided panes. Surely, this house

has nothing to hide.

Its daughters' honeyed secrets are

transparent. Their gathered whispers are not

ours. Here,

each room's sealed confidence

is suffused

with what passes for happiness.

Rumors of late summer's fields, wild with asters'

blue rays and white,

and busy among them, the sisters,

who claim what they can, hauling remnants

of light from

these daystars home.