Telling the Bees About Journeys

They met me coming up

the concession to our lane

after the bus’s flag stop.

They were waiting

in the bursts of asters,

in milkweed pods

and the open crowns

of yellow marsh marigolds.

They circled my head

and a halo followed me

with wings singing,

asking where I’d been.

I’d had a long journey.

The summer was ending,

the trees heavy and green

were dusty and tired,

yet I could almost taste

the pleasure of my welcome,

though I knew nothing

strays farther from the truth

in search of home or honey

and coming home is only

a reminder that as bees fly

the world is a small place.

Bruce Meyer is author or editor of 64 books of poetry, short fiction, flash fiction, and non-fiction. He has had three national bestsellers in Canada, and was 2019 winner of the Anton Chekhov Prize for Fiction (UK) and the Freefall Prize for Poetry. He has recently been a finalist in the Bath Short Story Prize, the National Poetry Competition (UK), the Tom Gallon Trust Fiction Prize, the Carter V. Cooper Prize, and the Thomas Morton Prize for Fiction. He lives in Barrie, Ontario, and teaches at Georgian College and Victoria College at the University of Toronto.