Honeyed
A Poem
Poisonous dew leaks from my mouth
In the form of familiar syllables and old lullabies
Sang to me inside this very own cubicle.
Homunculus dreams and thumbeline hopes
Wake me up in a squirm; I thought I had seen the hands
Of a long-gone ghost
Brushing off life’s sweet nectar from my body.
My poison ivy sting buzzes in tempting vibrations
For me to join the other side of the hive, the queens
I’ve buried over time, under the dust.
Honey seals every fate as the wax over a beautiful goodbye letter
Sorrow has never been bitter but nauseatingly sweet,
The regret after a feast.
You force pleasure into your mouth afraid you’ll run out
Of good things to rejoice on.
A heavy layer of fog, like the orange sand of a not-so-warm desert,
Suffocates my already repressed thoughts.
This feels like dying from an over-nourished love.
Dozens of striped bodies nest my struggling one,
I’m trying to find the right drop of honey, believing something I’ve created
Could somehow save me from something I cannot control.
There was a legend across the hive, a promise no one could
Put into words; no one knew what their devotion was for.
But still, we purged our hopes, hexagonal heart pieces
We’ve tried to glue back together with sweetness. It is always all
For nothing,
And what we have left is life’s aftertaste, lingering on the back of the tongue
Like an overwhelmingly sugar-coated kiss.
© 2021, Giulia de Gregorio Listo. All Rights Reserved
