Birthday Song

author's note:

Yet another “bee” poem (see last two entries)…

This time, the bee is outside me, not within.

But perhaps this poem is not so far removed from those other two: these outside bees can sometimes drive me to listen to the bee within.


BIRTHDAY SONG

I strum as I stroll--
trying to pluck a song
I think I want to hear again
if my fingers could only find
the right notes.

I want to express
the richness of a memory,
I want to re-create
a birthday song.

Perhaps I struggle
because to return
is to return
to how that bee sting felt--the shock
throbbing, the blood pulsing--

lightning is new life.

But for this song
to be a true birthday song
I must also recall how
the soreness slowly receded
as the thumb went
from loud purple
to deep red
before finally calming
to pink again.

If I can recollect
all these parts
then I can harmonize
in a way that blends
the thorn anger with
the loving vine remembrance
moving beneath the pain.

Perhaps then
I can finally accept
the answer when
I ask myself why
the bee had to sting.

Perhaps then
I will never again forget
this song.

© 2010, Michael R. Patton

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