In their honey-house her bees shuffle
and spin their sticky magic. This morning
she visited them as she does every day.
When she removed the lid angry bees swarmed
and chased her down the hill. She worries—
Did I crush a bee when I dropped the lid?
Returning in the afternoon
she opens the lid, finds five bees
diligent as medics
clustered around the injured one.
They tug and pull its legs until
the crippled bee rises and flies away.
Healing comes with the patient passage of time.
—An earlier version was published in California Poets in the Schools 45th
Anniversary anthology (2009). Poem is reprinted here by author’s permission.
Author/illustrator of Foreign Dust Familiar Rain, Seretta Martin is a
Phillip Levine short-list finalist. Her second book, The Art of Climbing Shadows,
is forthcoming in 2014. She serves as a contributing editor of the literary journals:
Poetry International, San Diego Poetry Annual, Synesthesia, and Blue VorText
Publishers. Her award-winning work has appeared in Web del Sol, Margie, Oberon
Foundation, City Works, A Year in Ink, Modern Haiku, Weave, and others.
Seretta teaches poetry at San Diego Writer’s Ink, at libraries, museums, and in
schools. (bordervoices.com & cpits.org) She is the assistant director of Border
Voices Poetry Program and a founding member of Haiku San Diego. At Upstart Crow
Bookstore, she hosts the 3rd Wednesday, New Alchemy Poetry Series. Seretta holds
an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University.
serettamartin.com