My mother was like the bees
My mother was like the bees
by Jeanne Wagner
because she needed a lavish taste
on her tongue,
a daily tipple of amber and gold
to waft her into the sky,
a soluble heat trickling down her throat.
Who could blame her
for starting out each morning
with a swig of something furious
in her belly, for days
when she dressed in flashy lamé
leggings like a starlet,
for wriggling and dancing a little madly,
her crazy reels and her rumbas,
for coming home wobbly
with a flicker of clover’s inflorescence
still clinging to her clothes,
enough to light the darkness
of a pitch-black hive.
She sounds Scot-Irish! My grandmother, from what I hear, was like this. Animated and full of life yet so cause of the demons within…perhaps? mmm. I like the bee comparison.
Vibrant words!
lavish–a: expended or produced in abundance b: marked by profusion or excess.
tipple–: to drink (liquor) especially continuously in small amounts.
waft–: to move or go lightly on or as if on a buoyant medium.
soluble–: susceptible of being dissolved in or as if in a liquid and especially water.
swig–:a quantity drunk at one time.
lamé–: is a type of fabric woven or knit[1] with thin ribbons of metallic yarns, as opposed to guimpé, where the ribbons are wrapped around a fibre yarn. It is usually gold or silver in color; sometimes copper lamé is seen. Lamé comes in different varieties, depending on the composition of the other threads in the fabric. Common examples are tissue lamé, hologram lamé and pearl lamé.
starlet–: a young movie actress being coached and publicized for starring roles.
rumbas–: a ballroom dance of Cuban origin in 2â„4 or 4â„4 time with a basic pattern of step-close-step and marked by a delayed transfer of weight and pronounced hip movements; also: the music for this dance.
inflorescence–:the mode of development and arrangement of flowers on an axis b: a floral axis with its appendages; also: a flower cluster
2: the budding and unfolding of blossoms.
Thx for sharing!
Yes, vibrant words. I finished reading this with a vivid visual of the woman.
Enjoyed the poem–well crafted.
Love this poem. I especially love the idea of having “a swig of something furious,” and your words have a buzz to them, like the bees themselves.