Jane Hirshfield: "Bees"

In every instant, two gates.
One opens to fragrant paradise, one to hell.
Mostly we go through neither.

Mostly we nod to our neighbor,
lean down to pick up the paper,
go back into the house.

But the faint cries—ecstasy? horror?
Or did you think it the sound
of distant bees,
making only the thick honey of this good life?

"Bees" by Jane Hirshfield. Text as published in The Lives of the Heart: Poems (Harper Perennial, 1997).

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer, perhaps associated with Really Raw Honey.