by Martin Elster
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| Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere. —The Guardian, December 29, 2025 |
We’ve been here since Cretaceous times,
predating all your categories.
Now, as in some horror stories,
killer bees have come with crimes.
The forest shrinking, climate drift,
chemicals—how can we cope?
But now your courts declare there’s hope.
We’re “recognized.” A gift—a shift
in ethics? We have gained the right
to live. We have our age-old laws,
and we enforce them without flaws.
Will you now do the same to fight
and show up for what you regard
as vital, enforce the words you’ve penned
to make sure this is not the end?
Guarding us from yourselves is hard!
The winner of the 2022 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest, Martin Elster comes from Hartford, CT, where he studied percussion and composition at the Hartt School of Music and performed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Martin, whose poetry has been strongly influenced by his musical sensibilities, has written two books, the latest of which is From Pawprints to Flight Paths: Animal Lives in Verse (Kelsay Books)..
