Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye

• RACHAEL IKINS

What bothers me;
not lengthening darkness,
cooler Fall temperatures, it is the bees. 
How they cling to red and yellow dahlias 
near my front door
as rain drenches their fur, 
as nights fall earlier 
and colder.

Stunned immobile by late afternoon, 
too chilled to fly to the hive, they splay 
across flowers like black hieroglyphs.

Frost licked a few full-moon night’s edges. 
I haven’t pulled the dahlia bulbs because of the bees. 
Days sun warms, they struggle again to sluggish work.

Some November morning when I see my breath, 
everything edged in white crunches beneath my boots
I will find them, fur frosted as if powdered decoration, 
hearts frozen to flower petals until the sun’s touch,
when all falls limp 
into Earth’s 
brown arms. 

RACHAEL IKINS is a 2016/18 Pushcart, 2013/18 CNY Book Award, 2018 Independent Book Award winner, & 2019 Vinnie Ream & Faulkner poetry finalist. She is author/illustrator of 9 books in multiple genres. Born in the Finger Lakes, she lives by a river with her dogs, cats, saltwater fish, a garden that feeds her through winter and riotous houseplants with a room of their own. Dragons fly by.