One of my Mason Bee puppets performs my poem “Shell-ter in Place”, a pandemic poem written in 2020. Osmia subfasciata, one of the Mason Bee species, lays her eggs in empty snail shells that she then seals with a mortar she makes from the tender pulp of a prickly pear cactus bud.

Shell-ter in Place

A poem written during pandemic

Her sea-blue body

is a silver-haired brush

flecked with pollen.

The mason bee

pats a loaf of bee bread

safe within a shell’s spiral,

provision for her progeny.

Shell-ter in Place she whispers

to the egg in her snail shell nest,

seals it with mortar

made from the tender pulp

of a prickly pear bud.

In this season of fear

turn to the bee,

Spiral inward to knead

a loaf of solace.

Tuck it in your heart.

Protect an egg that is worthy.

There will be 

a new world to build.