the rumour bee collects spoken news. it does not pollinate. it lands on the lower lip of someone speaking in confidence and carries away a fragment — a name, a date, a fact that was not to be repeated — to the hive, where the colony repeats and elaborates it until it is no longer recognisable to the original speaker.
this is how a quiet household ends up with a great many unsupported certainties. the bees are visible at the edge of any kitchen table where two people lower their voices. they are the warm-coloured insect that briefly crosses a candle flame at the wrong moment in a sentence.
cousin to the threshold bee; daughter of the rumour room. they overhear what the overhearing apothecary collects, and what the rumour bird later publishes.
— told the neighbour my plan in a low voice. by sunset the postman had heard a different one. — n.b.