The Innisfree Poetry Journal

www.innisfreepoetry.org

by Judith Bowles

A JOYFUL NOISE

The comfrey is alive this morning

its bell-shaped flowers are wobbling

with bees in busy birth-like clusters.

Life after life nuzzles in and out of dainty snouts

that seem an endless source of sustenance

for the yellow-dusted carriers. 

Last fall they swooned in shock, lay down

their dark lance leaves and all but said farewell

after the transplanting.  Cadaverous they lay

and I took them at their desiccated word

as goners.  Now they're running April riot

like an army at the border 

who've summoned a fleet of buzzing

allies to spread the loot once ravaged.