blind huber

i've recently picked up my copy of nick flynn's blind huber once again. it's been awhile since i last read it and this time around i'm finding it more moving than before. these poems take time, as opposed to his first book, some ether, which rolls through you with a smooth coldness. blind huber, however, is sticky and awkward. flynn writes of the relationship between a blind bee keeper and his loyal swarms. and somehow, as the book unfolds, the poems become more about solitude, duty and loneliness. which, in truth, is at the heart of human experience.

below is one of the poems from the book. check it out.



Blind Huber (i)

Opaque glow where my eyes should be,

what remaining light, eyelids

thin against it. Soothing,

as if all i pass were encrusted in wax,

dipped upright - wax bush & wax

bench, wax man, wax tea, waxy cup to waxy

lips, my eyes now more like their eyes,

morning filtered beyond translucence

as the acolytes cover the queen.

By the sound they will soon

swarm, clockwork, the frenzied heat of wings

forms droplets on the walls of

their city, their city softening, now twisting

just out of shape.