INSECTS.

“I can understand and see”

said the kindly rowan tree,

“How just sometimes as you travel on your way

that you’d like the company

of a skilled and clever bee

to add some variation to your day.

For it’s a certain thing

That you too have a buzz and sting

That you’re an insect too which travels through the air,

For you would like to know

What bees do and where they go

For you know you’ve much in common you could share.

I can see your point of view

And I sympathise with you

For there aren’t just rowan trees like me nearby.

There are many trees besides,

Whose leaves differ but produce sighs

To attract a passing insect that may fly.

You imagine for an hour,

With a bee you’d share a flower,

Join the colony of bees an learn their names,

But then startled, you do find,

They tell you you’re not their kind

So you can’t join in their honey-making games.

So the bees collect and swarm,

On a sunny day that’s warm,

As you longingly gaze at them from your nest,

And the strong and mighty queen,

Who seems to you quite mean,

Tells you separate survival is the best.

So you take your sting and buzz,

And retreat again because,

You have once more heard the cold familiar rasp,

Of those who doth proclaim,

That you are different,

Not the same,

You can never be a bee

‘cos you’re a wasp”.