Poetry by Shana Jones

Shana Campbell Jones works at the University of Georgia where she focuses on coastal law and policy. Her work has appeared in Ecotone, Poetry South, Orion, The Barely South Review, and The Agnes Scott Writer’s Festival Magazine. She grew up in the Florida Panhandle and lives in Athens, Georgia.

Blueberry Bee

Habropoda laboriosa (graceful-footed hardworking bee)

The Blueberry Bee makes her nest in bright sun
not far from where my grandparents lie.
Good for digging, the cemetery’s sandy loam
holds her buried cell with texture light—
and there she tucks the pollen she collects
from McClain’s Farm across the road.

Nectar to nourish her future brood.

From early morning, she works rows
of small blossoms—bell-shaped and pink—
foraging the cool Florida spring.
Shaking yellow dust from her feet,
she powders flowers as she flies,
and when her tasks are done
she brushes over headstones,
loops past weeping angels,
and joins her fellow bees
in one native hymn emerging—

congregations hidden vibrate,
forgotten souls hum,
and every strange grace feeds a refuge murmuring:
here rests all you need to know of love,
this wild and temporary hive.