In July, researchers in the UK
and Netherlands revealed how they’ve vanished,
colony hives fallen eighty fold. Look
where you will, Andrena gravida’s wish
seems not to be seen, leaving apple trees
bare, cherries a faint dream, dandelions
only memory in fields outside Leeds,
tulips fading like melting snow in and
beyond Amsterdam’s vast gardens. And now
America senses droneless silence
in California valleys, still meadows
of once florid Georgia, where swarms so dense
turned noon into night. The old farmer sighs,
listens for lost sounds, whispers to the skies.
Roger Armbrust
February 16, 2007
