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Honey and Paper

Cassandra combs a section of her hair
and watches from her upstairs window bars

the gold of evening clotting in the West
and thinks about the bees. Winding out long

the honey of her head, she smooths again
the caked and crumpled page to read the signs

in her imaginary almanac.
That bees are vanishing means nothing good.

An ignorance of causes holds the land
deeper and deeper in its druggy sleep,

while fall enfeebles the tripartite queen
and groggy worker on the window screen.

She whispers, hum, Then let the land have sleep.
Herself, she dreams of meadows clocks forgot.

And hears in sleep the icy sliding screech
that avalanches scream when mountains rot.

 

by Monika Cooper

Original bio from Spring 2015:
In another age, Monika Cooper delighted in disrupting a special pair of spectacles. Now she squishes small children, rolls them in sugar, and eats them like pancakes.


This poem first ran in the Spring 2015 edition of Grub Street Grackle. It appears here online for the first time.

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