Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Contest

Honeybee
by Lily Duval

THirty-First Contest
Honorable Mention

a honeybee flies through our garden in the morning
she’s my favorite one, and I always know that it’s her
because she bustles her way busily through the clovers
snuggling each one close
and putting more golden gems in the pockets of her sweaters
yellow stripes on black angora 
pockets made of the same buttercream frosting
that I wipe across the bridge of your nose on a Sunday afternoon
this time we try ginger spice cake
a can of soda poured into a box mix
the closest thing to homemade since a laptop
but what matters is the way you laugh
kiss sugar from my cheek
and dazzle me with your smile in the sunlight
underneath the upstairs window
the sky is a shower of marigolds
falling upon a crystalline blue lake
the pillow top mattress
feathers sewn into our nest
as we slip together like puzzle pieces 
underneath the gentlest of comforters 
and start to drift to sleep to each other’s voice
I sit in your lap
you read to me
I sing you to sleep or to tears
you lay in my arms like a teddy bear
and I think about the impending autumn
it comes every year
sending me to the corner table with a chai latte
and no one to hold hands with 
wearing red scarves
walking by the bookstore
but this is our first fall together
and I greet the orange patches against the blue sky
the way I did when I was eleven 
because picking corn and gourds 
can heal any scar in the world
I would shut out the daylight
but you are my sunshine 
and I want to reintroduce this life to both of us
I’m sure you know the way of the trees
the crunch of an apple off the tree
and the euphoria of making a pumpkin smile
I seem to have forgotten everything but tests, classes, and where I’m going to college
show me the way you make me feel
beyond your limitless smile
and share with me the crispiness of a perfect red leaf
smelling every candle in the warehouse
hay rides around my hometown
holding a purring house cat
covering the kitchen in snowflakes
almond biscotti in hot coffee
and a new year’s champagne kiss