A Carpenter Bee
caught a
yellow jacket
midair.
They tumbled
in cursive
to the ground,
where the ant
dragged them in a circle
by a wing.
The bee got away
but the yellow jacket
tucked his head,
and left his vespers
traced in dust.
By Alex Leavens
Alex Leavens has worked as a naturalist for the Portland Audubon Society, backcountry ranger and firefighter in the Olympic National Park, and primitive survival instructor in Southern Utah. His poetry has appeared in Cirque, Windfall, Perceptions Magazine, Clover, Cathexis NW, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Montana Mouthful, Wild Roof Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku.