A WIDOW WITHOUT A HONEYMOON OR A SUGAR DADDY

by Tom Fillion

I can taste

the queen

In the honey

But not the sting

In the upside down

Orange blossom tree

In the Hoosier cabinet

dispensed

by gravity

and worker bees

that live fifty days

transporting nectar and pollen

according to the queen’s five-year plan

as tribute

to her six-sided mason jars

in the hive

capped by wax

and royal ferment

a new queen is born

as larva

for the next coronation

happens when the old queen abdicates

and leaves behind

her successor,

the new virgin queen

has her choice of drones

whose sole purpose

is to pollinate her

then die

so she may live a lifetime 

as a widow

without a honeymoon

or a sugar daddy

Thomas Fillion is the author of 5 novels and 2 books of poetry. A new novel, The Year of Broken Glass, is in the works. A number of his short stories and poems reside online. He graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa and is the third generation of his family to work at Mt. Washington Cog Railroad in New Hampshire. His experience as a waterbed set-up man inspired The Dream Mechanic, a colorful look at 1970s Me Generation. His teaching career began at Hillsborough County Adult High School as an English and math instructor. In 1991, Desert Storm, he was an English language trainer for the Royal Saudi Air Force in Taif, Saudi Arabia. He has also taught Ringling circus children and was a private tutor for Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. For twenty years he taught math and coached track, tennis, and golf at Robinson High School. He is now gainfully unemployed, i.e., retired, and spends his time writing, riding a bicycle along Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard and Riverwalk, picking a guitar, grilling some dinner, and traveling to New Mexico and Vermont. Most recently his new book of poems, Everyone Gets a Trophy, has become available on Amazon. Kirkus gave it a good review. @dream_mechanic, facebook.com/dreammechanic, 

https://thomasmfillion.substack.com/