Loyalty Among Bees

The perfectly round holes
in the eaves of my garage
caught my attention.
I was familiar with the work
of carpenter bees and the damage
they can cause to a structure.

The exterminator arrived,
confirmed my suspicion
and began to spray a substance
he assured me would not harm
my dog, only the bees who seemed
to stagger through the warm air.

One bee fell to the driveway
her weighted wings twitching.
A male bee returned from away,
darted about, before seeing her
and settling at her side.
The exterminator said he’d seen
this before – mates defying danger
to be with their dying partner.

I’ve done some research and
found nothing to support the
theory of loyalty among bees
but I know what I saw.

By Eileen Van Hook

Eileen Van Hook has been published in various journals and anthologies. She placed first in a poetry contest in “Writer’s Journal”, has placed three times in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry contest and is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Eileen lives and writes in the wilds of northwestern New Jersey.