From WTP Vol. V #1

A Lamentation: Honey
By Larry D. Thacker

Of the things that take me back
when I’m sick for home, biscuits
never fail me. If they’re a little flaky,
and there’s salty butter to be had,
I am transported and a happy man,

however temporarily. On this trip,
I was glad for the extra treat of honey,
though in little individual packages
both convenient and, after inspection,

suspect. Being alone, a little bored,
and naturally a label reader, I made
the mistake (if you can call it that,
though I’m better off finding out)
of checking out the ingredients:

high fructose corn syrup, honey 7%.
I eyed the good biscuit in my hand,
bites taken, soaked in the trickery
of modern day factory black magic
fake food, tasting past the sweetness
into the subtleties now, separating
down the elements distributed over
my palate, searching out the true
food of the gods somewhere in this
mouthful of breakfast. Of all things
to pervert, to bastardize in the world,
who could dream up sins like this
against the blameless work of bees?

Does some seed of evil require that
even innocent honey be corrupted
to contribute to our obese mortality?

The wicked seed is us. None of us are
inculpable in the conspiracy against
trueness and legitimacy. Let us go
inform the bees ninety-three percent
of their kind are declared redundant. 

Larry Thacker’s poetry can be found in over sixty journals and magazines. He is the author of Mountain Mysteries: The Mystic Traditions of Appalachia (Overmountain Press) and the poetry chapbooks Voice Hunting and the recently published Memory Train (Finishing Line Press). His the forthcoming full collection of poetry is Drifting in Awe.