alison benjamin & brian Mccallum









































































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Friendly Street



the very first time I held

a comb of live bees
I was a thousand years old

today I clambered
around the hive
replacing the trellis



brood in the supers
stores in the brood

all very irregular

my hive stands four square
a William Butler Carr

the bees use upside-down

in a bee suit
I feel like a monk
in a skep



they all come out together
like office girls

for a smoke

the most precarious
manoeuvre
is the landing

attending to my bees
I wish that we were 

more anthropomorphic




   (after David Connearn)




I recall their giving
the flowers in the garden
season and reason

a highlight of chats
protected by your
precautionary roll-ups

The Bees of South London
there’s a contemporary novel
waiting to be written











Alison Benjamin & Brian McCallum, A World Without Bees











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