More Yellow Jackets

They are dying everywhere.

I have seen them huddled, 

in their colors on the 

floors of bathrooms and 

phone booths and ferry boats 

all along the lake.

First in Ambleside, 

then Bowness, and 

now in Lakeside. God, 

it is so sad how they 

have lost their spirit.

They lump up around the 

middle and pull in around 

the edges. And, as they paw 

their heads, I can only imagine 

their confusion and their pain.

One danced with me for a 

hundred steps. First on my 

ear, then my finger, and then the 

hem of my shorts. In an instant I 

threw him to the ground. No 

thought. My feeling was gone 

and haste came to sit there.

I wanted to shop, and he got 

in my way. It only takes a second 

to go from brother to consumer.

And off I was. I saw his cousin 

spinning in a circle on the 

bathroom floor until he died.

Two deaths. Which one sadder?

9 September 1995