mother, daughter
mother, wife to a beekeeper
treads the path to honey
fat and puffy like pollen
golden legs, intent hands
arms for a cradle
baby in the first year
life at the hive
honey-keeper, memory-hoarder
silver scissors
a little curl between her fingers
a weft of yellow-white silk
on fragile curve of bone
her daughter, unbidden, unlooses for her
curls, locks, braids
takes up the sceptre
of the bee-keeper, her hair
fair, darkens by the year
then lightens, silky pollen
the beekeeper's wife, the gatherer
ribbons, labels each year
reaps gold at the nape of a neck
Acknowledgement: Divan
Also published on the Sylvia
Plath Forum: poems inspired by Sylvia Plath
