suffix, busybody

  

Look, I said. I picked it up

To show the friendly neighbor 

There with her kid 

To gather trash in the park. 

They had ungers. It was cool out, not raining 

I peeled off some wasp hive 

It looked like a paper mache cantaloupe 

Skin gone it revealed 

Stacked apartment layers 

Honey comb garages for each unit 

A stink bug crawled out 

She was gleeful and amazed 

A renter? A squatter, she proposed? 

A busybody, I thought.  

A touch nosy.  

____ 

-ment, suffix denoting concrete result 

Action, place  encampment 

State of condition resulting from (action) 

IE.   predicament  

___ 

The hive could've dropped on my head

In my bed 

Instead, the wind pachinko 

Lottery ball gifted a science 

Engineering marvel 

The trees other side 

Duh that's life the reprimand says 

Look, the sunny side of not getting 

Cancer is demise in incremental 

Luck displacement  

Fly away home the geese not chopped 

In the sentimental rotors 

That's aeronautics and imprinting 

The good parent building hives of precious trash 

  

The lady with her unger 

Ever ready, smoker in their back pocket 

Should the architect residents emerge 

 

2024

SE Portland  

Wasps construct their nests by chewing wood or other materials into a paper-like pulp, which they then use to build their homes: 

1. Find a location

The queen wasp emerges from hibernation in the spring and chooses a safe, dry place to build her nest. This could be a tree branch, eave, porch, or other location.

2. Gather materials

The queen wasp scrapes wood fibers from trees, fences, logs, or other wooden structures with her jaws. She may also use cardboard boxes.

3. Mix with saliva

The queen mixes the wood fibers with her saliva to create a soft, malleable pulp.

4. Build the nest

The queen forms the pulp into hexagonal cells and lays an egg in each one.

5. Expand the nest

Once the first worker wasps emerge, they take over the task of building the nest and foraging for food. The nest continues to grow throughout the spring and summer.

6. Abandon the nest

In the fall, the nest reaches its peak size and is abandoned because  

only the fertilized queen can survive the winter.