Trapped in the dark,
waiting, wondering,
not in silence, but worse -
a neverending buzz
that drowns the unhearing ears

Able to dance like nobody's watching
because nobody is
Alone in the blackness,
blundering and stumbling
into others equally alone

And then the world turns over
and sharp bursts of riotous sunlight invade

The dancers pause, dazzled and confused,
and then all is chaos, a frenzy
No longer alone,
but now overwhelmed
Too many, too much, too quickly
The light, it hurts,
but it calls
and the darkness,
stable and familiar,
is gone

An upward rush towards the blazing drum
that every wing beats to
in the light and the motion
of the frantic dancers
that seem merely flitting shadows,
ethereal and transient souls
caught up in the whirlwind
of sudden, inconceivable freedom.

02/27/2003

Author's Note: Inspired by a news article telling of a truckload of beehives overturning on the highway. Going around a curve, the truck tipped over and the 450 hives (cerca 20 million bees) were suddenly on the loose. The idea of the dancing is my own addition, based on my knowledge of the bees' method of communication (called waggle-dancing, and yes, that is the official term).

Posted on 03/05/2003
Copyright © 2025 Amanda J Cobb