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Abigail Wotton teaches English at Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, SD. Her creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in 805 Lit+Art, Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal and Free Inquiry.

The First Question

Abigail Wotton

They ask me, “If you warm up a bumblebee
in the winter, will it wake up and sting you?”
and then argue about it, not waiting for my
answer, maybe already suspecting I don’t
have the one they’re looking for.

“Bumblebees don’t sting, stupid,” another student replies.
“Don’t they stay alive all winter?” I can answer this,
because I know. I know that these kinds of bees
remain in a cluster all winter, surrounding the
queen in order to keep her warm, and alive.

There are other questions, ones that, for now,
I don’t have the answers to, ones they won’t
be ready to ask me when they do.

But for now, while still unaware of these questions,
we huddle at the window and watch the falling snow,
holding our breath, almost convinced we can hear a shivering hive.

— Abigail Wotton

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