The Honey Bee
All for the good of the Queen,
the motto of solidarity buzzes around the hive, the male drones look to mate with her, the female workers bringing her pollen, so she will be swollen with royal jelly. All for the life of the Queen, “a span of 2 to 3 years and up to 5” until she flies off to start a new colony and a new queen born from wax cells, kills off the remaining competition. Long live the new Queen, the switch of Marys and Elizabeths, revive these tiny settlers and breath new life into their work, but now the wind has changed, the matriarchy has been beheaded. Workers poisoned, confused, intoxicated, they eat the lotus and forget how to get home, or infect the rest with these false poppies. This apicide will lead to our downfall, like Nero’s fiddle, we play our own elegy. China has killed their queens. And now human drones with minute paint brushes and back breaking work pollinate their flowers by hand, one by one, their thousand-year-old ginkgo in the hands of an unskilled killer. Like overturned trucks on the Delaware, that kill hundreds, in one quick bend. Dashed communication to survive. Years of labor lie in pieces on the asphalt, abandoned in the chaos. All of this to save the Queen. Poisoned and broken, her workers die around her all that is left is Roanoke, CROATOAN, a pattern broken for good. And if we let the Queen die, perhaps it is best that we die with her. |
KELSEY AMENTT
was born outside of Philadelphia to musician parents who ran an eleven-piece soul band. An English and Theater major at Skidmore College, Kelsey had a play produced at the Walnut Street Theater in 2011. Since 2015, Kelsey has lived in Los Angeles and works in film and television. |