as if the hive / were just another jar

[grammarfight.livejournal.com]

Hive


What would you do inside me?
You would be utterly

lost, labyrinthine

comb, each corridor identical, a
funhouse, there, a bridge, worker

knit to worker, a span
you can't cross. On the other side

the queen, a fortune of honey.

Once we filled an entire house with it,
built the comb between floorboard

and joist, slowly at first, the constant

buzz kept the owners awake, then
louder, until honey began to seep

from the walls, swell
the doorframes. Our gift.

They had to burn the house down
to rid us.


—Nick Flynn





cross-posted from grammarfight

Comments

[applepieskies.livejournal.com]

This has got to be one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. Maybe it's due to my obsession with bees and honey that makes me value this so much; but it leaves me breathless and smiling from within.

[vowel-in-thug.livejournal.com]

Well, as someone who really has no preference towards bees nor honey, I thought this was completely beautiful. I loved the end.

[iatrogenicmyth.livejournal.com]

I love Nick Flynn.

[lovelineny.livejournal.com]

nick flynn is amazing. i love his other book, too.