That’s Not Honey Humming in You

Maybe if you kept your nose
Out of our beeswax, how’s that?
Think of how much happier

You could be once without us,
Without words, without other
People’s use of words, of us,

Pinging around in your head
Like a hive roused to fury,
Desperate to drive you off.

Oh, if you could only stare
At an ornamental plum,
At faint patterns in the stars,

And not feel voices at all,
And not be human at all.