the bee keeper by Jim Bennett

the bee keeper’s friend
a doctor from London
visited for many years
coming each summer
for a few weeks holiday

together they would stroll
the Sussex lanes
down to the village
to sit reminiscing
in the Farmer’s Arms

through the year alone
he would busy himself
making hives
collecting honey
often seen at dusk
sitting on his cottage veranda
smoking his meerschaum pipe
(hand–carved like a ship’s
figurehead)
while he stared off towards
the distant hills

those passing
later in the night
would speak of the airy
sound of a violin
that drifted down the lane

the people in the village
wondered about
the old man who lived alone
and after the doctor
stopped visiting
he shunned local company
and some told their children
to stay well away

eventually he was found
dead in his chair
by the delivery boy
who called twice each week

afterwards the undertaker
spoke of strange things
in the cottage
microscopes and manuscripts
articles about beekeeping
and at the side of the inglenook
hung a Turkish slipper
filled with foul smelling tobacco

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