Two bumblebees
extract nectar,
sweet and bitter
from the center
of the rose-colored petals
of a flower which is not a rose.
Sated,
they thud against the picture window
again and again,
fixed on escaping
with their bounty inside them,
into the air behind them,
incognizant that the path to freedom
has been eclipsed,
incognizant
that they are drawn
to an illusion.
With the blood honey
in their guts
already a part of their
rapturous marrow.
And distinct.

From Watchword by Pura Lopez Colome. Copyright © 2012 by Pura López-Colomé and Forrest Gander. Reprinted with permission of Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved.