The Fragrance of Shadows
Memory, blind memory
catches bees in Skippy jars
on hot afternoons in clover grass.
Depth of what depth in penumbral shadows -
Out of what -
does one have to remember - the bees
in glass - blistering the top,
and forget what - no doubt -
was sacred.
A bee's too much to handle
- more than just imagination -
(a boy's close enough to the ground to know that)
"but it will lure the fish, 'they say' "
so any boy will try it.
It's hard to say
what draws the bees
to sting the upturned bottom of a jar
and leave an open ocean
swell below, unnoticed.
What device to get them all
- all at once, that is -
is just that.
But a boy's patience is short -
too short to worry of, fishing to be
and far away - and not
the bees in hand - in glass.
It's abstract, I suppose -
but imagination's not, a boy knows
to run in all directions -
when kicking skippy jars of bees
right side up,
on hot afternoons, in clover grass.
Los Angeles
August 1977
Los Angeles Series
©1978 The Fragrance of Shadows— Joseph W. Yarbrough
Reproduction prohibited without written permission.
catches bees in Skippy jars
on hot afternoons in clover grass.
Depth of what depth in penumbral shadows -
Out of what -
does one have to remember - the bees
in glass - blistering the top,
and forget what - no doubt -
was sacred.
A bee's too much to handle
- more than just imagination -
(a boy's close enough to the ground to know that)
"but it will lure the fish, 'they say' "
so any boy will try it.
It's hard to say
what draws the bees
to sting the upturned bottom of a jar
and leave an open ocean
swell below, unnoticed.
What device to get them all
- all at once, that is -
is just that.
But a boy's patience is short -
too short to worry of, fishing to be
and far away - and not
the bees in hand - in glass.
It's abstract, I suppose -
but imagination's not, a boy knows
to run in all directions -
when kicking skippy jars of bees
right side up,
on hot afternoons, in clover grass.
Los Angeles
August 1977
Los Angeles Series
©1978 The Fragrance of Shadows— Joseph W. Yarbrough
Reproduction prohibited without written permission.