So Bees do Quantum Mathematics

Bees dance
when communicating
distance and direction
in sixth dimensional geometry.

So bees do quantum math—
feel any better about balancing
your checkbook?

It's not like bees went to school
—instinctive quantum geometry—
they knew it long before
we thought of the concept.

Maybe we should learn from the bees,
communicate in dance. Imagine
what our bodies would know how to say.



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My Circus

in my head there is always a circus
the tall elephants sway
with the men in long coats
directing them to or from a ring

the clowns run rampant

everything feels as familiar old
as a wagon wheel
splintered and chipping paint old

costumed women run to
climb the ladders of a high wire act

—no nets—


big cats whip-tired
roar the roar of captivity


the carnies are barking
their games
three balls for a dollar


midwest mud and sawdust
peanut shells


ropes and wire
gyrate in a breeze more
my breath than pressure zone


gray afternoon light
hinting a tornado or some
disaster on the horizon


seats half
empty eyes
of a broken ring master
a life of running away
from life


the spectacle not spectacular
the show goes
on to another town
in a day or two


no one runs away to
join anymore


most folks
never even go

(originally published in In The Grove)



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photo courtesy CJ Sage

• Editor-in-Chief,
Disquieting Muses
• Host of FM91.5, KKUP's
"Out of Our Minds"

     Dancing Bear lives in the San Francisco bay area. His poems, art interviews, reviews and photographs have been published in many journals, including New York Quarterly, Zuzu's Petals Quarterly, Slipstream, Rio Grande Review, Pearl, Poetry Motel and Nerve Cowboy. He is Editor-In-Chief of the on-line magazine Disquieting Muses (disquietingmuses.com) and the 1999 winner of the Mindfire Chapbook Contest for his manuscript Blue Hand, later this year a chapbook Atlas(Red Fruit Press) will be released. Dancing Bear is the host of a weekly poetry show "Out of Our Minds" for public supported KKUP 91.5 FM in Cupertino, CA.

Mitakuye oyasin (All my relations),
Dancing Bear