The Plight of the Bumble Bee
According to NPR, the bumble bee is endangered, and that is
bad for flowers and plants that need pollinating. The birds and the bees will not be the same
without them. I saw one today. Last week, one was dying on the front step of
my parents’ house. It crawled
pathetically, dragging one immobile leg. It touched me that something so small
and fearsome still had a strong will to live.
By the time I left by the front door, the brave little bee was dead.
We feared bumble bees, deceptively cute with their fluffy
yellow and black striped bodies. Honey
bees, too, are not as strong in numbers as they were. A good reading of Sylvia Plath’s works or The Secret Life of Bees helps us to
understand their place in the ecosystem, too.
The lives of insects should give us pause. They are tiny and intricate, yet intelligent,
ruthless, and industrious. Wilson’s studies of ants
intrigue those of us who love miniatures and the miniature world. They become more than household pests or
picnic invaders.
Otherwise, the last flowers of summer glow fiercely in their
beauty, and the insects all sing one last song, a dirge. It’s as if they do know what is coming, and
that they know they will die.
Ironically, my Dracula flower that needs sun, has withered and died on
its stem. Perhaps its perennial root is
still good. Yet, if a plant named for
the ultimate vampire can’t survive in this world, one wonders if there is hope
for us.
The ground crunches with acorns. There is no quiet in the air; just the steady
falling of them, sounding like repeating bullets.
Fall and Halloween are here; I’ve declared it. I’m moving
on. The last rosy golds and reds of
summer glow, but will soon give way to frost, pumpkins, and cold rains. The dying leaves will dazzle us with their
beauty, gorgeous botanical corpses, they will be skeletal by Christmas.
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