Bee Balm, Bumble Bees & Hummingbirds
There is a patch of bee balm next to my house that is filled with wonderful bumbling bumble bees. That same patch of bee balm also attracts long limbed butterflies and utterly audacious hummingbirds. What a splendid gathering of little flying spirits. Here is a poem I wrote after watching a hummingbird charge into that patch of bee balm-while all the bumblebee clutched their hankies (if bumble bees carried hankies) in amazement.
The Hummingbird
This morning, A bottle green hummingbird Hovered… Its tiny extraordinary wings, A blur of determined motion. It hung there, Surveying A bright stand of bee balm With blossoms tender as skin, Red as summer berries. It paused, Waited, Gathering up a good measure Of bright bird chutzpah. And then in a whistle, it barged in like a cowboy Pushing through the saloon doors Audaciously ordering a sweet sarsaparilla, With a straw. It then ruffled and rumpled, Tasted and tested, And then with an incomprehensible dazzle of feathers, (All the bumblebees whispering, “Who was that masked man?”) It was gone, The saloon door still swinging, All the straw wrappers skittering, Floating, Ever so lightly, To the ground.
Carrie Newcomer - From The Beautiful Not Yet: Poems, Essays & Lyrics
