This need to seize photos, garner
birds as they hoist or settle,
bumblebees while they dip
into purple trumpets,
leaves illumed by sun.
Like with the pull of a moon,
I’m lured beneath trees,
along edges of gardens, lakes, woods
to angle and zoom,
net the best replicas,
then transfer image after image,
cache and view the array
of color, contrast, pattern, texture,
crop and adjust or delete if blurred.

Why do I amass all these photos?
Is it the urge to reveal what is veiled,
an instinct to embody
opulence, intricacy, luminescence
that sends me out time
and again like bees teem
from a hive to cull nectar?

-Karen George