Six-legged Mammon

        Six-legged Mammon

The bee’s bright trove refracts, hones no rainbow.

Midas’s cup is not a prism.  Only one

Greedy color comes from it.  Strain, stain, glow–

Wealth.  That’s it.  Maybe momentary fun

Shines out, but mostly it’s just jealousy

This heavy metal magnet stickily

Attracts.  Apollo’s priestesses decree

A sun-toned future, spoken trickily,

With shadowed undertones and meanings.  Hush!

Why not be blissful with such nectars first

Vacuumed by that tongue, let light liquid gush

Like crystal, allow other hues to burst?

  The gilded, black banded creatures have wings

     But carry shiny dark’s barbed venom stings.