The Earth Turns South/Star-Bees
STAR-BEES
The stars are golden bees,Booming through the sky-meadows.As they fly, they utter a sweet humming noise,That rings with melody through the wide heavens.Sometimes, when my ears are closed,I can almost catch that far humming.
We see them such a tiny time!All that we call hours, years, centuries,They, flashing in their golden speed,Seem to have hardly moved;One swift glimpse, and our eyes are closed forever.
Oh, the vast meadows they fly through,Sky staked out next to sky;And, oh, the strange sweet flowers they visit,Burrowing deep into the cloven blossom-hearts for the honey.
At night the bees go back to the hive;But it is dawn to them now,And they scatter in the sky-meadows.To us the wild splendor of their flaming dawn—is darkness.
At evening they will fly home to the hive,And the black final night. . . .