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“Was you ever bit by a dead bee?”

“Was you ever bit by a dead bee?”

By Hailey Leithauser b. 1954 Hailey Leithauser

I was, I was—by its posthumous chomp,

by its bad dab of venom, its joy-buzzer buzz.

If you’re ever shanked like the chump

that I was, by the posthumous chomp

of an expired wire, you’ll bellow out prompt

at the pitiless shiv when she does what she does.

Was you? I was. By its posthumous chomp,

by its bad dab of venom, its joy-buzzer buzz.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2009).

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Poet Hailey Leithauser b. 1954

POET’S REGION U.S., Mid-Atlantic

Subjects Nature, Animals, The Body

Poetic Terms Rhymed Stanza