My current life is wayward, 

a repeated annoyance. 

So I ask to be teleported 

into a honey bee's body after 

the current body stiffens

like a tree branch in demise. 

I find flying interesting though 

I am untested. 

Scientists say I will spend this life toiling  

for a hive, reaching flowers

to gather nectar again and again. 

Purpose is pleasurable like a cup 

of morning coffee, or a long drive 

across state lines with Coldplay on repeat.

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Michael Akuchie is the author of Wreck (The Hellebore Press, 2020), a debut chapbook of poems selected by José Olivarez to win the 2020 Hellebore Poetry Scholarship Award. His poems have appeared in Poet Lore, The Rumpus, Gordon Square Review, Lost Balloon, and other places.  He reads poetry submissions for Iron Horse Literary Review and Poetry Sango as Associate Editor and Editor respectively. Akuchie is an MFA Poetry student at SIU, Carbondale.