back in the seventies
when some thought the apocalypse

could be ushered in
by bees, bees, millions of bees

Irwin Allen enlisted a cavalcade
of actors (Richard Widmark!

Slim Pickens! José Ferrer!)
to react to bees mobbing helicopters

and wiping out crowds
bees derailing a train

bees blowing up
a nuclear power plant

it had to sting a little
emoting in a flop blockbuster

(reviews of which featured the word
"risible" with startling frequency)

towards the end of an illustrious career
(Henry Fonda! Olivia de Havilland!)

now it's decades later
and bees, bees, millions of bees are dying

but not, so much, the movie's
bellicose but hardy breed

it's even posited that Puerto Rico's
"gentle killer bees" might avert

the bees' extinction
(what would brooding entomologist

Michael Caine have to say?)
bees, bees, we need you

come back, bees
and we'll make another movie in your honor

dotted with improbable film stars
rejoicing: bees, bees, millions of bees!