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'...little bees ...' — Description

Take—for the sake of joy—out of my palms
a little sunlight and a little honey,
as we were told to by Persephone’s bees.
You can’t untie a boat that isn’t moored,
nor can you hear a shadow shod in fur,
nor—in this dense life—overpower fear.
The only thing that’s left to us is kisses:
fuzzy kisses, like the little bees
who die in midair, flying from their hive.
They rustle in the night’s transparent thickets,
their homeland the dense forest of Taygetus,
their food: time, pulmonaria, mint…
Here, take—for the sake of joy—my wild gift,
this necklace, dry and unattractive,
of dead bees who turned honey into sun.
- O. Mandelstam (translated by Stephen Dodson)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfaA30…

soft pastels on black paper