Basil Bee

By John I. Blair

I’m glad to see a bee upon my basil,
Buzzing from flower to flower,
Content on this September day
As if it were July and winter far away.

The microscopic nectar bits
It gets from tiny basil blooms
Seem scarcely worth the effort;
But I know that in the hive

The summer’s work, accumulated,
Amounts to pints or quarts
Of sweetness, fragrant
With the basil’s spiciness,

Rich with all the time,
The lives of many bees,
None of which had contemplated
If what it did, or what the basil did,
Was worthy.

©2016, John I. Blair, 9/9/2016