Kevin Casey
Sweat Bee
On a warm day after a night of rain,
you buzz along toward lunch, bucking up
next winter’s firewood, cutting through air
mist-heavy and thick with chainsaw exhaust
and the smell of sap. Among the stabbing itch
of deer flies that knot themselves in your hair
like burs, a sweat bee in its viridian vest
you nearly crushed against your arm, as it paused
for a brackish sip. With need of neither sting
nor welt, it drinks a toast to another year
with the nectar of your morning’s efforts.
Sweat Bee
On a warm day after a night of rain,
you buzz along toward lunch, bucking up
next winter’s firewood, cutting through air
mist-heavy and thick with chainsaw exhaust
and the smell of sap. Among the stabbing itch
of deer flies that knot themselves in your hair
like burs, a sweat bee in its viridian vest
you nearly crushed against your arm, as it paused
for a brackish sip. With need of neither sting
nor welt, it drinks a toast to another year
with the nectar of your morning’s efforts.
Kevin Casey is the author of Ways to Make a Halo (Aldrich Press, 2018) and American Lotus, winner of the 2017 Kithara Prize (Glass Lyre Press, 2018). And Waking... was published by Bottom Dog Press in 2016. His poems have appeared in Rust+Moth, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Connotation Press, Pretty Owl Poetry, and Ted Kooser's syndicated column ‘American Life in Poetry.’ For more, visit andwaking.com.”