Honeybees (XIV)
XIV. somewhere within my mother’s
body, a colony of honeybees have built
an apiary.
XIII. behind her, i watched as they carried
the nectar across the garden,
through the flowering field, and flew into
her.
XII. after a month, the FBC tests reveal a
low blood count. XI. anaemia the doctor
says
through his checkered socks, oval glass
frames, and stethoscope-bound neck.
X. i would go home and open the
internet to find the causes.
IX. the biopsy reveals cancer. VIII the
doctor is unsure.
VII. the honey begins to leak out the hive
VI. coating everything it touches
in a golden yellow film. V. in the coming
days, we’ll find a way to
release insecticide into the nest. VI. the
scans reveal the bees
have nested somewhere between the
cerebrum and the cerebellum.
III. this morning, the nest cracked and
leaked forth more golden yellow.
II. most of the worker bees are dead
now. I. the queen though keeps growing
fatter, and fatter, and fatter.
Erinola E. Daranijo (he/him) is a Nigerian writer. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Akéwì Magazine, and the author of the micro-chapbooks, An Epiphany of Roses (Konya Shamsrumi Press, 2024) and Every Path Leads to the Sea (Ghost City Press, 2024). He splits his time between the ‘cities’ of Ibadan, Lagos, and Cape Town. Say hi on X (formerly Twitter) at @Layworks.
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