Swim Beneath Date Trees
Palm Desert, 2008

Across their salt-water
swimming pool
beneath date palms
with black bags encasing fruit
I observe a bee struggling into its last breaths
twitching in its last full body convulsions
I swim over to it
lifting it onto a dried leaf
placing it onto warm stone
I float in the water
Observing
I may have been too late
It barely moved
Would it have been kinder to let it drown?

Yet I believe in this particular bee
I want its life force to remain
This bee, a being.
At this moment,
I believe in being and I prod it a bit
It moves
just its head and mouth parts at first
It pauses
I float and watch
It becomes a she
A female bee, a goddess

I float as she comes back into herself
dragging her back legs as if broken
but really only soaked
dragging as if she returned from another world
With each moment
there is more life in her
I touch
her folded wet wing
with the leaf stalk
water remains on the leaf

I am present with this being
When I leave her
to swim a few laps
she flies off

He brings out cut up fruit and yogurt in its container
They sit on chairs by the pool
I remain in the water and snack
“You should finish this,” he says.
I realize in that moment
How seldom
Anyone tells me what to do.

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