Of a Million Earths by Susan Browne

sometimes while gathering nectar bees get tired

Of a Million Earths

by Susan Browne¹

---

One million earths could fit inside the sun
The thought of a million earths

makes me want to be a bee falling asleep inside a flower 
It's a fact: sometimes while gathering nectar bees get tired

& put their three pairs of legs over their five eyes 
to block the sun which is halfway through its journey

of ten billion years
My mother loved sunsets at the beach

I remember once in Santa Barbara 
our chairs close together on the sand

There's no way to fact-check this 
or that we chewed Juicy Fruit gum

& talked about things we'd never shared before 
or that I kept looking at the freckles

on her knees because they made me 
feel peaceful as a bee dreaming inside a dahlia

A billion years since that day with my mother 
or seems like it

Her middle name was Marie
I brought a boombox to the church to play Ave Maria

A cold morning although the sun was shining 
on the only known planet in the universe where life exists

1. First published in New Ohio Review