Honey from the Hornet’s Nest

Honey from the Hornet’s Nest
  Irrito crabrones
for Rip

O a honey from the hornet’s nest
To win your love my dear
But I should risk such foolishness
Were you but half sincere

And time would volunteer to test
By keeping for a year
The love you have so oft professed
Within a hornet’s ear

So lure me not with promises
Into a fiery bed
For I am stung by your excesses
Of words meet for the dead

Who neither know the honey’s essence
Nor unsay the lies they’ve said
O sad the bee that homeward presses
To make his comb his only keep

And finds its queen inclined to its recesses
But not to eat its honeyed meats
Yet perhaps too far out on the limb am I
To beat a safe retreat

But hung in my dilemma sigh
To keep a seat before your sweets
Although the three-part confection from you I should buy
Would make Apicius from laughter weep