Lazy and languid she emerges
Startling colours of bold and bright
Gold and red hues of awe and alarming
A magnificent and terrifying sight

She starts her bold quest 
preparing the nest
for her offspring
and all of their kin

The work is hard 
and the labour consuming
as she chews wood to a papery pulp
Crafting their home with focused attention
she shapes, moulds, fashions and sculpts

She feeds her kin on all manner of creatures
that wreak havoc on plants and fresh greens
Some might see her as nought but a pest
The gardener knows she’s a guardian queen

When she has borne the next generation
She fades away as they take her place
Her existence the blink of a heartbeat
As she departs with an aura of grace

Not a trace of anger or sorrow
Her purpose fulfilled in her heart
She knows the language of mother
Not a thing to be named
but an art.

---

This week’s Sunday rhyme time was inspired by a very lazy queen hornet I encountered while walking my lovely dog recently. I was lucky enough to get close to her and what a magnificent and fearsome sight she was, such bright colours! I felt sure she must be some alien species of super wasp come to invade our planet (the curse of an overactive imagination). Luckily, I have a smartphone and before I called the men in black I was able to identify her as a European hornet queen. Apparently hornets get a bit of a bad rep, being less aggressive than wasps and unlikely to attack unless defending their nest. Still, I wouldn’t have risked getting so close if she hadn’t been half asleep.

It’s a truly wondrous world we live in.