Hanging On

They are alive... Or at least some of them are... Or rather, the community survives.


I take comfort from that. The "expert" was wrong. They weren't frozen, or starved, or eaten.


But what about the individuals, the ones whose bodies I witnessed curled up on the ground among the grass. Do they matter as long as the hive lives on? I think the bees, if they could say anything, would say not. It's not like they had individual lives separate from the hive.


Still, a note of sadness creeps into my joy at their continued, stubborn hold on life and a university tree.