A Bee's Last Thoughts

Roses and colorful flowers entice me constantly. With eagerness and pleasure I seek their sweet, moist and energizing essence; I love them, I need them. I flitter from one to another attracted by their scent and imbibe the flower’s nutrients. One plant to another I float, what a joyful life.

Sometimes clumps of flowers attach to my feet and wings. I deposit them on other plants as I move around, gifts of life as I move from plant to plant. It is my job, my purpose. A cycle of life I am told. What a joy. I drink in life and move bits and pieces of seeds to other places.

I am a traveler, a life giver.

Gusts of wind move me further and further from my nest. I should return, I try but can’t. Now I am lost.

The wind holds me in its grip. I travel without control. High and low I sail, away from the scents and colors near the sandy shore. Trapped by the wind, I go where it takes me.

My wings vibrate to no avail. I can’t return to the land of flowers and sweetness.

Below me is salty water. To drink it is to die. Ahead is a dark mass, solid. Not water.

I urge my weakened body towards the dark mass. The solid mass offers a spot to land and rest. My strength wanes and I drop towards the solid place. No aroma. Nourishment is missing. But I can rest. My wings slow and then stop as I land on the solid thing.

A pink mass is nearby; it projects an aroma of life and moves this way and that way. Closer to my resting spot it comes. I am too weak to flee as it stops next to me.

I garner my diminishing strength and move to it. It is alive. It has an aroma that stimulates me. My proboscis springs to seek sustenance. A dark salty liquid streams out, it is bitter but I drink without hesitation. Not a rose or any other flower I know; despite the bitter taste it is wet and I am thankful for the moment. Perhaps it can give me sufficient energy to return to my beloved roses.

A shadow covers me, air moves and the pink mass crushes me. I die, but not before my apitoxin flows into the pink mass.

**

Later a man has an anaphylactic reaction and only vaguely remembers the reason.

Inspired by the chance meeting of a bee and me on November 29 while on a cruise ship in port.

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