HONEY BEES

Just the simple honeybee
doesn't seem like much to see
until there came that final spring
when there were no more to sting

No buzz among the flowering plants
which threw everything askance
no pollination for the year
and that is what lead us to here

Stick people stumbling all around
starving and falling to the ground
half mankind killed in useless war
which spread like an infected sore

Missiles launched, cities laid waste
decisions made in too much haste
the second winter's coming now
if we survive I don't know how

Starving hoards poured from each city
met by folks who had no pity
millions rotting in the sun
reason's reign was finally done

It's now October, growing chill
we hide in a mine dug in the hill
stored food for maybe six more weeks
counting cured ham which now reeks

I shoot anybody who comes by
then just leave them where they lie
by morning their bones are stripped clean
a grey, ghastly and deadly scene

At night you can see campfires scattered
cannibals, as if it mattered
I'm saving a few bullets, see
for my family and me

Our world we thought would last forever
tipped into ruin by a lever
whose tiny fulcrum, don't you see
was the humble honeybee