Kevin Roy

Colony Collapse

Once there was, and there was not:
We make a tale of a last bee tracing 

loops under the only moon.
The order of things is erased each day. 

Before sun up, the birds disappear;
I cull the orange petals of mariposas 

and loosen abandoned nests of mud daubers.
A strongman tells a crumpled paper wasp to leave. 

The days of rallies are long past
as one by one, our organs fail us. 

A gardener pollinates the few orchards
with stippled dust and a paintbrush; 

bud by bud, mutant fruit pocketed
with too many stones; the clouds banished 

and take the rains; where I plant nails, razors,
a ball of pennies to coax blues from the earth, 

bruising wells up. The laws make exile
almost organic, the air ashamed.

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Kevin Roy is a family scientist in public health at the University of Maryland College Park. He has taught, mentored and conducted community-based research using life history interviews for over 20 years. He has been an active poet for even longer, through participation in writers’ groups and workshops. His first poems were published this past year in Broadkill Review.