1.

This place is reserved
for the bee.
At last!
The blooming verge
Is his own and he is on it.

On the verge
of adulthood,
Mother is all:
Legislation! Time isn't
All sweet tessellations!

And a little hand
on the shoulder
(You’ll be fine, honey).

Though the distance doesn't quite drown
Out the drones he finds
Himself petalled
With the pleasures of
Independence.

Written after a week in Taupo spent running away from bumble bees and reading Jenny Bornholdt's Summer, which features these beautiful drawings by her husband, and fellow poet, Greg O'Brien.