Memorial Day

Among the close-cropped clovers

at my parents’ graves

(sweet clover

with the smallest of yellow flowers

red clover

with the dizzy red heads)

a small yellow foraging bee

the one we called a sweat bee

when I was a child

dabbles 

at one flower

then another,

then searches my bare arm

so close

I feel the throbbing of her wings.

She thinks you’re sweet

my father would have told me.

He taught me not to flinch

when the sweat bee hovers near..

---

Michael Henson

Michael Henson is author of six books of fiction and four collections of poetry. His best-known work is Maggie Boylan, a collection of linked stories centered on a woman struggling with poverty and addiction in rural Appalachia. He is a member of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative and plays guitar with the Carter Bridge Bluegrass Band.