Once upon a time,
Honey comb veined wings beat over and
under grass blade corridors, fallen leaf
warriors’ whose fingers tore her black and
yellow hair. Pollen and pregnancy weighed
on her corbiculae, food for the hive’s grubs,
the baby who would have her acorn shaped
eyes with irises like the melting sun. My mother’s
thumb brushes across my cheek, streaking it with love.
Sweat whispers down her round face, tickling
her with fear; she can feel the beewolf drawing near.
Her antennae wince at the smell of nectar dripping
below the wolf’s latticed eyes, remnants of the
petaled battleground the mothers met on. I poke the
freckles of perfume blooming on mother’s chest.
The air stirs above her, the hot soup of death
boiling in her abdomen as the beewolf’s lemon
legs snatch her from flight. Delight engrosses the
huntress as she flips her prey over. The knife, her
stinger, finds home in a womb that isn’t her own,
a tomb that will hold the remains of the bee’s baby
and feed the wolf’s. One mother’s corpse becomes
the other’s crib, larvae using her thorax as its bib.
My mother’s teeth glitter, knife-like and nurturing,
As her lips punctuate a goodnight kiss on my forehead.
And the wolves live happily ever after.
Adrianna Gordey is a writer and undergraduate student pursuing a degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing at Kansas State University. She has written articles for Society19 and ComicsVerse, ranging from advice on how to decorate a dorm room to the mortality of watching AMC's The Walking Dead. Adrianna lives in Manhattan, KS -- the little Apple -- where she works as a Resident Advisor and Teaching Assistant.
Twitter: @adriannagordey