The Bee God Ted Hughes

When you wanted bees I never dreamed
It meant your Daddy had come up out of the well.

I scoured the old hive, you painted it,
White, with crimson hearts and flowers, and bluebird

So you became the Abbess,
In the nunnery of the bees.

But when you put on your white regalia,
Your veil, your gloves, I never guessed a wedding.

That Maytime, in the orchard, that summer
The hot, shivering chestnuts leaned towards us.

Their great gloved hands again making their offer,
I never know how to accept.

But you bowed over your bees,
As you bowed over your Daddy.

Your page a dark swarm,
Clinging under the lt blossom.

You and your Daddy there in the heart of it,
Weighing your slender neck.