We Dance like Bees Dance: a Poem about Love

I’m re-reading John Irving’s Last Night in Twisted River at the moment. I love the way he uses the do-si-do as an extended metaphor to describe the courtship dance between key characters. It made me think about the bees courtship dance, or ‘waggle dance’ which inspired the following poem. As ever, your comments, queries and criticism are welcome…

We dance like bees dance:
Tentatively we hover
Afraid of breaking cover;
Afraid to show our love.

We dance like bees dance:
Round the flowr’s in summer splendour;
Their siren-song a blaze of crimson colour, or
A dazzling ultraviolet too enduring to be seen
By human eyes:
We dance around their brightness, still
Afraid to show our love.

‘Lovely is the rose’
Though under its bright petals grows
A peril promising a bleeding heart,
And so, afraid to have a bleeding heart
We fail to show our love.

Until one perfect day, the dance is perfect:
The distant choreographer unseen
Smiles on us, and we smile upon each other
And then finally, decidedly
Abandoning our fears
We show our love.

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