Zombie Bees of Winnipeg

In slanted sunlight's glow,
some stumble into signs
and bounce off with a zing,
exhausted from zagging
down the one-way streets
of downtown Winnipeg.

They shamble, stiff-winged
this Labour Day,
these zombie bees —
a hunched and mumbling swarm
of black encircled eyes
and jaundiced stripes
without the brains to know
they should be dead.

[published on the Chiaroscuro/ChiZine.com 47, 2011]

This poem was inspired by attending the Aurora Awards presentation at the Worldcon in Winnipeg in 1994. The Awards were given outdoors in a park near the convention centre. It was a beautiful Labour Day weekend and there were many zombie bees.

Thank You!