Taylor Franson-Thiel

Hymn for a Beehive

Fervently

            In Utah, there are many : ways to bury a body (as you know) :
the many lakes : many sands : many wide empty swaths :

of farmland always hungry : for fertilizer : the few rare tees :
a guilty coven : a flock : of eye-free : witness :

mountains with boat thick skin : immune : to the beehive :
daughters drowning : (you grow : orchids from the corpses :

death your favorite scent) : the winds : indifferent :
to how or what : they erode : and winters cover :

the body’s laboratory : evidence : anyways : the rising sun :
brings the song of : Saints : across the industrial desert :

(wherever those voices : take you : I hope : it is far from me)

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Taylor Franson-Thiel is a poet from Utah, now based in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Master’s in creative writing from Utah State University and is pursuing an MFA at George Mason University. Her writing frequently centers on the intersections between the female body, religion and her experiences as a college athlete. You can find her work in places such as Psaltery and Lyre, Quarter Press, The Bangalore Review and others. Along with writing, she enjoys lifting heavy weights and reading fantastic books.