The Lavender Thief

Through misted window
and the golden light of sunrise,
I watched a bee
who bounced with tenderness
from flower to flower, 

Bending stems
like see-saws
collecting
purple nectar. 

Thinking the lavender
looked so lovely
I stepped outside
and picked a couple. 

Alarmed
and in a rage
the bees
all buzzed at me, 
and in that moment
I saw what a thief
I had become,
and felt ashamed
for all the selfish
actions of my kind. 

Thieves,
all of us.

—————————

Perhaps I think too much and see too deeply but this encounter with the bees in my garden – bees who usually just ignore me as I sit close by and watch them as they buzz around the flowers – made me question my reason for picking the lavender in the first place.

I guess, all the seemingly insignificant actions of Mankind add up, and thinking about this makes me ask the question, “Are we at all worthy of this beautiful planet we call home?”, when collectively, we have stolen so much from nature and still continue to destroy Earth, at a very alarming rate.

I’m not saying that I think we should all stop picking flowers, just that, well… the bees reminded me of something that I always knew in my heart: that as humans we’ve already taken so much that doesn’t belong to us, did I really need to steal those lavender flowers from the bees this morning?