Desert Survival Guide: Honeybees

by Elisha Holt

Wild honey can be useful when stranded
intoxicating, electric

feral bees in the smoke of mesquite wood
will gorge themselves on it

their stings, common
rapture

the meat
of the comb
best tasted mingled
with stings
to the lips and the inside

of the mouth
or, if preferable, a single sting to the middle
of the forehead

your eyes swell
like Sonoran toads croaking

into the vision of
our bodies rising
to the sun
manic as the cactus
needles screaming
to be touched.