Sarah Starr Murphy

Sarah Starr Murphy is a writer and teacher in rural Connecticut. Her writing has appeared in december (forthcoming), Qu Literary Magazine, Pithead Chapel, and other wonderful places. She’s a senior editor for The Forge Literary Magazine and eternally at work on a novel. She has two dogs, both alike in stench.

MAGNOLIA by Sarah Starr Murphy

November 1, 2021 · Fiction

The bumblebee swerves across the yard to a yellow daffodil. The bee clings to the flower’s face for an instant, then crawls on her abdomen into the cylinder of the corona, stretching her tongue towards the sweet nectar and flattening her last two legs behind like a puppy. She nuzzles in, wriggling. She backs out, clinging onto the rim with her four hind legs. Her front two legs wipe the pollen from her furry body. It falls in tiny but discernible chunks. She wipes her head a few more times, then buzzes off for the next flower. The young boy…

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