The undertaker bee
Scientists say the undertaker bees don't get better with experience,
neither do they work well together
because
dead bodies need
to be dropped from the hive
because
there are no carts
stretchers on wheels
no orderly queues
because
she can’t figure
the way to haul
the dead to the door
because
she consults her manual –
the carrying positions
of thorax and wing
because
her low hum is carried
as she reads in the waxy gloom –
syllable by syllable
the whole hive over hears –
the single-shoulder carry
the fire-man’s lift
the blanket pull
Frankie McMillan is the author of five books, the most recent of which, 'The Father of Octopus Wrestling and other small fictions' was listed by Spinoff as one of the 10 best NZ fiction books of 2019. She co- edited 'Bonsai : best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand' (CUP, 2018). Her poetry and flash fiction appears in national and international journals and anthologies, notably, Best NZ Poems, 2012 and 2015, 'Flash Fiction International', 2015 (WWW Norton) and 'Best Small Fictions', 2017 (Braddock Books).
