Voice of a Bee Hummingbird, Cuba and Elsewhere/Everywhere

Article 12, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

I might be a Lilliputian to some
so invisibly fast, these wings
 
like the internet.
These wings paced
like politics.
 
Here on the Isle of Youth
claims are perpetually staked.
Just as my nest of lichen and cobwebs
requires patience and a keen eye
 
you humans demand an undoing
again and again--your domes,
white Capitol and information
settle on the nectar of one flower 
amid bright swarms of other flowers.
 
How many petals you people plant
thinking something will grow.

Jess Burnquist is the author of the chapbook *You May Feel Your Way Past Me* (Dancing Girl Press). Her poetry has appeared in multiple journals including Otoliths, Ms. Magazine/Ms.Muse, Rise Up Review, Poetica Review, Adelaide Magazine and more. She currently directs education and youth empowerment at a human rights anchored nonprofit in Southern California.