The Sleeper – Réka Nyitrai

The Tulip Whisperer: do bees speak

the language of rain?

Yes, but they don’t like it.

They learned it out of necessity.

Is slowdown actually death?

As long as you use the sun as your compass

sitting still is sleep,

not death.

The Tulip Whisperer: what is the sleep pattern

of bees?

Younger bees sleep much less than the older bees.

Then, regardless of what you say:

sleep is death.

Réka NYITRAI is a spell, a sparrow, a lioness’s tongue — a bird nest in a pool of dusk. She is the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for 2020 for her debut haiku volume “While Dreaming Your Dreams” (Valencia Spain: Mono Ya Mono Books, 2020). Her prose poems have appeared in Otoliths, Unbroken Journal, Pithead Chapel, Heliosparrow Poetry Journal, NOON: journal of the short poem, Obliterat Journal, and others.