WHILE WAITING FOR A STREETCAR
   THIS MORNING, THE UNKNOWN
       FILLS ME WITH WONDER 
Ahrend Torrey

Next to a full maple surrounded by
   white clover, I sit on a bench and watch
        cars swoosh in every direction
              toward places I’ll never
                   know. 

The bee on the ground next to my foot,
    must’ve grew still during the  
         night and died. Does it live on?
              Did it live a happy, full life?

I wonder about the monarch kissing the
    bee’s stiff leg, if she’ll take its
         baton, if she’ll keep it moving toward
              blossom, toward yellow and red
                    blossom.  

If when her time comes she’ll dwindle
    to the ground like an unknown
          leaf; will clover swallow her
             —up! up!—into that miraculous   
                     rise of light?!

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Ahrend Torrey is a poet and painter. He is a creative writing graduate from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. When he is not writing, or teaching English in New Orleans, he enjoys the simpler things in life, like walking around City Park with his partner, Jonathan, and their two rat terriers Dichter and Dova. Forthcoming in 2018, his work will appear in West Trade Review (Johnson & Wales University), and Soundings East (Salem State University) among others.