A Piece on Loss

Bumblebee queens live for about a year. Their offspring, the workers and drones, live for about a month.

My mom is not a super religious person, though she was raised baptist. One of the only times I’ve heard her pray was to ask that she wouldn’t lose one of her children.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a bee and live your whole life in a city populated entirely by your siblings, but this piece has been an exploration of what it may look like to lose a child. A child who’s come to the end of their life naturally and predictably. Perhaps this is the thousandth child you’ve lost, but I can’t imagine it ever gets easier