Yellow Jackets—

protect through venom and candor.

While timing their own dinners

to mother's tray, father's tongs,

or baby's saucer-sized cheeks,

they can sting any intruder repeatedly

unlike the honeybee's suicidal sortie.

I like that. I like X

who calls people out at brunch

through simple narration:

your mouth never stops moving.

Or, you eat off other plates as if they're your own.

Or, you check your BlackBerry when no one is talking about you.

Or, you laugh whenever you insult someone.

A startling attribute I wish I could emulate

if only my sting possessed such integrity.

Source: Toxic Flora (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010)