For Victor Nuñez

Slowly the beekeeper moves, like a lean and tired animal,
dressed like a simple landscape in all the colors of the West.
His secret a crown on his head, he stares right through others.
On hidden dirt tracks, he drives a small van filled with stories,
arrives in the middle of a clearing where heavy bee clouds hover.
He rarely speaks as he loses a bee or two among the birches
but keeps going forward and outdistances regret with the walk.
The wind resonates gently like a different kind of insect.
The beekeeper keeps moving, filtering and collecting his gold,
back aching, hands roughened, the past alleviated through work.

This poem is from the collection The World Is In Your Head (Ginninderra Press, 2001)
Photo credit: Andre Klimke via Unsplash

Mélanie Francès Hutson was born in Paris, France. She grew up in Europe but lived for four years in New Delhi, India, as a child. As a college student, she discovered her gift for writing and developed an interest in the arts and American literature. She later moved to Montreal, Canada to pursue her graduate studies at Concordia University and obtained an M.A. Degree in English and Creative Writing. In 2001, she published her first chapbook of poetry, The World is in your Head, with Ginninderra Press in Australia. In 2008, she published her collection of poems Anatomy of a Love Affair (My Life in the Movies) with Salmon Poetry in Ireland. She now lives in Maryland where she is currently raising her son Noah and writing about books on Instagram at @mybookhunter.