Live Encounters Poetry & Writing July 2025
Bees, poems by DeWitt Clinton.
Bees
Exactly, or for those who like a bit of charm,
exactamente, but that’s what we’re all so
terribly nervous about, that something is going
on, and we don’t know why, but suddenly,
it’s as if we know we’re going to be okay,
at least for the night, well, perhaps just
a few more hours, as who knows who
will scatter our home with such rapid
fire that the sofa actually is on fire,
and how in the world could that happen,
but we’re all wondering about that which
is what some will say is the buzzing bee
syndrome, first witnessed from a tearful
couple who didn’t even know how the
flying bees even found a way into the
old blue VW van so long ago, but it’s
repeated over and over, don’t you know
this, first the small child gets a sharp
poke in the neck, back side, and then
screams her head almost off, much to
the consternation of the parents in
front, trying their best to keep the steering
wheel from disengaging from whatever
a steering wheel disengages from, for
the couple up front weren’t thinking about
bees, but in fact, something more pleasant
and totally risqué that we can’t even talk
about it, now, so long ago, but then the
new bride is smacked silly with another
bee stinger, and now we have two wailing
and whimpering, and the only one left
set up for a sting, is the driver, who, by
the way is delirious knowing somewhere
in the tiny van a bee is scouting out
where to post his life and let die a poker
into the driver who will if that happens
most likely swerve off of the highway
into some totally perilous off highway
disaster, and that, dear ones, you’re still
dear, right, that is what continues to this
hour, knowing something much more
frightening will happen just like that
sofa, a nice one even, will just set fire
and two are already bleeding out, and
the one left is quite unable to dial anybody
but something like this is happening all
over, in malls, in schools, in holy places
where the unsuspected are just starting
into a long prayer about something,
and just like that, in comes an AK-47
or something even more rapid as it’s
no longer Vietnam, but now, to just
make a short aside, why is everyone
loading up, leaving last messages,
as if the entire world is going to be
a shootout in old Dodge City though
that was the day when one bullet
left the chamber one at a time, and
the deadly cowboy had to use his
other palm just to make the bees
fly out faster, and why is that, why
is that the answer as that’s the only
answer anymore, anywhere, everywhere.
Peppermint
Really, like who would have thought of this, or thought
this up, as it’s too wonderful to believe but yes, I’ve never
ever tried it, but now I know it would work as the kindly
looking fellow staring out from my screen (how’d he get
there?) spoke with such confidence, such candor, so truly
convincing, that I don’t ever want to even question what
he’s discovered, but yes, tell me again, he’s just an actor,
not a real scientist, and the director said to the actor,
with feeling, say it with feeling, and so many of us have
no idea how to even begin to start with feeling as we all
want facts, even if they’re not facts, as it really doesn’t
matter anymore as there are now more facts that are
not even close to facts as there are truly believable
facts, but that’s another problem here, the notion that
something is believable which is questionable as just
who says it’s believable as, and here’s the part that
really gets me, I may not, or heck, I don’t believe what
you said is believable for that’s all in the head of the
believer, yes, and so don’t try to push that hooey
over on me, or anyone around me, as it’s probably
A, not, as so many beliefs are just some someone pon-
tificating about something they’re only reading a
script from, and who can’t read a script and sound so,
yes, so convincing especially if they’ve signed a contract
to sound, exactly, to sound as if all this who-haw I’m
pontificating over truly is a miracle and why wouldn’t
anyone believe in a miracle as so many miracles have
come by us long since those Books were sealed so
no one could write about anymore miracles but it’s
so true, what we heard could be a miracle especially
if we believe whatever anyone tries to pull something
over on us which, as you very well know, happens
quite often, I’d say probably more often than that as
in not quite, but very often, as who, really, who has
the time to go out there and discover if the miracle
is believable or not believable as most, as you know,
are not believable but so many have no idea what’s
really going on that they assume if someone does
say it’s believable, and they sound so entirely, well,
so believable that all of us are pretty skeptical about
putting up a challenge and saying something nervy
like how do you know this, where’s the proof,
where’s the beef? and if we bring beef into all
of this, well, then we’ll be at each other’s throats
for such a long time for we know someone has
planted a terrible idea in all of us, that soy might
actually be more believable than beef, and then,
O god, or O GOD, all hell breaks through in this
civilized gathering and nice people, very nice
people who we once thought were very nice, now
they are actually throwing raw patties at us
and some just are so flabbergasted with a patty
pasted on their face so they, and this is documented,
so they actually start to nibble a bit at what’s on
their face, and they rather like the slightly warm
but not charred raw patty and pretty soon, patties
are flying back and forth creating a kind of ruckus
no one has seen around here for such a long time
and all of this, all of this unbelievable patty flying
is the result of one nice spokesperson who knows
nothing, says, with conviction and aplomb, try
peppermint plants, or peppermint spray and you
won’t ever again be bothered by those impossible
to kill in any way nice mice who keep returning no
matter how many electrical or cheesy trap devices
you’ve planted throughout the house, so believe it
dear friends, this is a miracle, the miracle and you
know all about miracles now, so send your credit
card numbers right away, and you, too, will never
ever see your mice scattering across your floors,
just set down your plants, or spray, and wait for
the peppermint to send all off scurrying so soon
that you’ll soon wonder, what other wonders are
out there that you haven’t believed in for so long,
so please, please believe what you can’t believe
with your first payment of, yes, peppermint patties.
© DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton taught English, Creative Writing, and World of Ideas courses for over 30 years at the University of Wisconsin—Whitewater. Recent book collections include At the End of the War (Kelsay Books, 2018), By A Lake Near A Moon: Fishing with the Chinese Masters (Is A Rose Press, 2020), and Hello There (Word Poetry, 2021) which was awarded the 2022 Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. He has a new collection of poems coming out this fall. His poems and essays have appeared in a variety of national and international journals and anthologies.
DeWitt Clinton’s very entertaining poems, and rolling cadences, lead us from our everyday world, which we take for granted, right to the larger truths we might have missed because we were so busy avoiding them