Headline: “Downtown Cincinnati street buzzed
by bees, Orchids chefs capture swarm”
[Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 10, 2018]
A ho-hum Monday in downtown Cincinnati
Then, like a scene out of Hitchcock
Twelve thousand bees descend from the sky
Setting up shop at Fourth and Vine
Outside the door of the Orchids restaurant
Bees in all directions
Buzzing, flitting, flapping
Lounging on cars, signs, parking meters
Covering the sidewalks to fifty feet in the air
Pedestrians panic, office workers flee
A hot dog vendor dials 911
A mother hurries her toddlers away
Police are befuddled
Some new form of terrorism?
Word reaches staff in the Orchids kitchen
Executive sous chef Mallory Myers
Executive chef George Zappas
spring into action
Donning their handy beekeeper suits
they rush to the midst of the throbbing swarm
desperately searching for the queen
Twelve thousand worker bees but only one queen
Larger than the rest
and likely near the center of the flock
In mere minutes
Myers finds the queen
and Zappas entices her into the box
The workers, naturally, follow their queen
And as quickly as it started
the invasion of the bees has come to its end
Not one single drone on Vine Street
Too late in the autumn to start a new hive
Orchids is providing a comfortable home
These bees, so happy in their new domicile
will produce gallons of honey
for Orchids and their appreciative patrons
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