A POEM by MADELINE BLAIR

bee collector

after Matthew Zapruder

you’re making me crazy
he said squeezing
the neck of our future
and I thought how
righteous to blame
the woman
who collected
memories like sea-
shells sharp
and unforgiving
I’m glad
it’s gone now
isn’t it strange
how skies
can be clear then
a tornado
warning in chicago
the next day
but it feels quiet
and slow
and I said to him
one day on a drive
that one day
I want to be
a bee collector
since honey is
sweet and bees
are kind too
he didn’t listen
so I swerved
so far out
of the way isn’t it
just lovely
how there is so much
more out there
for all of us
if we let it
I said I am
still deciding
if I need
sun or shade
I guess
it depends
whose light breaks
the window
or whatever
shakespeare said
I noticed
the wind gets in
our teeth
when we smile
how lucky we are
to smile
and smile with
wind on our face
sometimes
taking a walk
I exclaim
how great is this
weather today
and I can breathe
now I can breathe

---

Madeline Blair (she/her) is a poet, editor, and award-winning filmmaker from Chicago, IL, with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is the founder/editor-in-chief of Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Okay Donkey, Dodo Eraser, Burial Magazine, Luna Luna Magazine, Libre Lit, Ekphrasis Magazine, and more. She was once quoted in The New York Times on her passion for clean air.