The queen bee flew to Mount Olympus
To offer some honey to Hera and Zeus,
And while she was there she planned to discuss
The current problem of bee abuse.

When Zeus tasted the heavenly honey,
Immediately, his senses were reeling.
In all his life, he had never
Tasted anything more appealing.

"Oh, my ZEUS!"--he REALLY said that--
This honey, your majesty, is delish!
What would you like? Anything!
Tell me and I will grant you your wish.”

"People," she said, "keep stealing the precious
Honey produced in all of our hives.
That is extremely annoying; what's more,
It's a serious threat to our lives.

"We need stingers so we can inflict
Pain on those who try to harm us.
For us bees to get even with others,
Is there a better way to arm us?"

Zeus loved humankind and was
Taken aback by the queen bee's request.
But since he had made a promise, he couldn't
Disappoint his lovely guest.

"Stingers you shall have," he said,
And stingers they got, but with one catch:
The stingers that the bees received
Were the kind that would detach.

So, when the bees stung their victims,
The victims, of course, would let out a cry.
The stinger, however, remained in the wound,
So consequently, the bees would die.

Be careful what you ask for is one
Of the morals that you might have deduced.
Another: pain, when wished upon others,
Just like chickens, comes home to roost.

-by Bob B (8-10-21)

°An Aesop fable, "The Bee and Zeus," retold here in verse

What a crazy world we live in!
It gets crazier day by day.
Imagine killing your kids because
They had serpent DNA!

Yep! A California man,
Killed his children--one by one--
Down in Baja California
With his trusty spear fishing gun.

His infant son and toddler daughter
Didn't even stand a chance
With a paranoid father who was
Caught up in a QAnon trance.

Matthew Coleman feared that his kids
Had inherited from his wife
Serpent DNA--for him,
A good reason for taking a life.

The 40-year-old from Santa Barbara
Thought his kids would grow up to be
Monsters in his perverse and bizarre
Alternate reality.

The bodies of the children were found
Near Rosarito Beach. So sad.
It was the only course of action
To save the world, said the dad.

There are people out there for whom
Conspiracy theories have great appeal.
The fact that so many people believe
The utter nonsense is surreal.

Beliefs can be constructive unless
They help to bolster inhumanity.
The more that QAnon spreads its lies,
The more we're seeing lapses in sanity.

-by Bob B (8-12-21)

Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis
Are leading the lemmings into the fire.
The two governors are throwing more
Wood onto the funeral pyre.

Each is hoping that voters will give him
Praise for his cringeworthy COVID response,
Which was never very aggressive
And always displayed more nonchalance.

Partners in carnage, they hope to score
Political points while people get sick.
And people are dying. Can't these two
Numbskulls do their arithmetic?

COVID numbers are rising again.
The delta variant is spreading fast.
And yet the two behave as though
COVID is a thing of the past.

Banning mandates for masks in schools
When numbers of cases are rising? What?
Their irresponsible, heartless, and thoughtless
Behavior is a punch in the gut.

It's all about choice, DeSantis says,
Which shows his reasoning's not so keen.
Kids don't have a choice in the matter,
For kids under twelve can't get the vaccine!

The two Republican ideologues
Do not want government "intrusion."
They are entrenched in hypocrisy
And have abandoned truth for illusion.

Patients are filling the hospitals
In both of their states--an indication
That they have a serious health crisis.
What a frightening situation!

Younger people are losing their lives
In greater numbers than before.
It makes no sense to abandon reason
And common sense as numbers soar.

DeSantis and Abbott have blood on their hands.
But, obviously, they don't care.
I'm glad they’re not my governor.
Floridians and Texans beware.

-by Bob B (8-11-21)

Once there was a mischievous dog
That thought it was so fun
To bark at and snap at people--in short,
To torment everyone.

He was such a nuisance that
His master had had enough.
"I am going to fix him," he said.
"If HE doesn't like it, tough!"

And so he fastened a bell around
His dog's neck that morning
So people who were near would hear it,
And it would serve as a warning.

The dog was oh so proud of his bell
And had an odd reaction.
To hear it jingle, he strutted around
With utmost satisfaction.

An old dog approached and said,
"Please don't put on airs.
I see this situation has
Caught you unawares.

"I think you need to know the truth,
And so I'll cut to the chase.
The bell is not a reward, my friend;
It's a badge of disgrace."

The moral: sometimes we wrongly feel
Pride instead of shame
When it's notoriety
That we mistake for fame.

-by Bob B (8-10-21)

°An Aesop fable retold here in verse

Outside a window hung a cage
In which a bird was confined.
A neighboring bat was wondering if
The bird had lost her mind.

During the day when other birds sang,
She wouldn't make a peep.
But every night she sang her heart out
While the rest were asleep.

One evening, the bat paid her a visit
To check out the situation,
Hoping that they'd be able to
Engage in conversation.

"Lovely bird," he said, "I feel
That something isn't right.
Why can't you sing during the day
Instead of only at night?"

"I used to sing the whole day through,
But when the fowler heard
My beautiful voice, he said to himself,
'I must catch that bird,'

She said. "And so he caught me with nets
And stuck me in this thing.
From that point on, during the daytime
I have refused to sing."

The bat replied, "My lovely friend,
Please do not be sore,
But that won't help you at all right now,
Although it might have before.

"Before you became a prisoner--
When you could perch in a tree--
If you had sung only at night,
Maybe you'd still be free."

Of course, the story has a moral:
Precautions are truly great,
But they are utterly useless when
They are applied too late.

-by Bob B (8-9-21)

°An Aesop fable retold here in verse

Have you come across a bullet ant?
I haven’t yet and hope I never do.
I know that just a single, brief encounter
Would be one that I certainly would rue.

Of all the stinging insects in the world,
This ant--it's said--inflicts the sharpest pain,
Which is so intense, the victims say,
That most attempts to soothe it are in vain.

They say the agony is similar
To that of being shot with someone's gun.
Now, I have NO idea how that feels,
But I will wager that it isn't fun.

Another thing: it takes a bit of time
For the piercing pain to go away.
It doesn’t disappear for many hours,
And even lasts for up to one whole day.

In Central and in South America,
These inch-long scary ants have lived and thrived.
And frankly, if I never ever meet one,
I have to say that I won't feel deprived.

Of course, we have our critters in the city:
The roach, the spider, fly, and bumblebee.
That's okay, but I am adamant
When I say jungle living's not for me.

-by Bob B (8-8-21)

The lizards crouched on a desert rock,
Quietly reminiscing,
When all of a sudden one of the members
Noticed that one was missing.

“Where is Sunny?” he asked the others.
“Is he under the weather?
Come to think of it, he wasn’t here
The last time we were together.”

“Poor Sunny,” the patriarch said,
“Isn’t himself these days.
He even lacks the motivation
To come and soak up some rays.

"Haven't you noticed that recently
His eyes have lost their twinkle?
For some of us it’s the end of the world;
For others it’s just a wrinkle.”

Then he added, "Sometimes in life
A sad thing can occur,
And suddenly we realize that
We're not what we were.

“So, what I have to share with you,
I say with no compunction:
Sunny seems to suffer from
A case of reptile dysfunction.”

-by Bob B (8-7-21)