I may look the part of predator, striped the colour of mean
Wings that sound a warning.  I’m avoided, seldom seen
But this is all a defence to stop the things that would hurt me
Look closer: I am just a fly, buzzing happily
Flitting amongst flowers, spreading pollen as wide as I can
A hippy of the natural world, my stripes are far out man
If I hover a little closely, it’s only true that I’m intrigued
You humans are so interesting; full of love, but also greed
Your masks are more entrenched than mine will ever be
I hope there comes a day when you can shed them easily
Feel the truth that lives integral to every being’s core
The knowing you are whole and need never want for more
Until that day just know, from one masked being to another
I see you to the centre and love you wholly: sister, brother

---

Just when I was wondering if inspiration would ever strike, this rhyme rolled onto the page in fifteen minutes. Never again shall I utter the words I don’t have time to write! (Actually that’s a pretty bold statement for a writer, I’ll probably still say it, but at least now I have proof it’s just not true).

Hoverflies have been buzzing around me for a couple of weeks. I’ve noticed them when I’m meditating, when I’m walking, one was even at my window right before I wrote this poem.

When I first noticed one, I wondered what it was. It was striped yellow and black and had an elongated body like a small wasp, but its head looked like a fly. Despite its mean buzz, I felt instinctively that it wasn’t threatening. I noticed the way it hovered and wanting to find out more about it, I typed ‘hover fly’ into google, and there it was. Maybe I already knew what it was called and had forgotten along the way. (There are some who believe we are born with innate knowledge and life is a process of rediscovering it, rather than gaining it. Look up anamnesis if you’d like to rediscover more). Apparently hoverflies are also called flower flies or syrphid flies and are great pollinators (as well as great inspirators, it turns out).

You don’t need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.

Maya Angelou