The Abundance of Marmalade

I'm eating breakfast in Berlin and watching two wasps hover over the marmalade -I've placed it across the table so they stop hovering over me. I really don't like to be hovered around.

Segmented abdomens pulsate with what imagine to be pleasure as they eat the jelly. The wasps are very territorial about the marmalade. They ambush and tackle each other. While one wasp is eating the other will attack from behind, they fall to the table and tumble, curled around each other in a fierce embrace, until one of them takes flight, carrying the other for a moment, suspended in the air like a tangle of Escher, until they break apart and hover.

The dance begins anew.

Now they have discovered that it is effective to knock the other wasp into the bowl of marmalade. They eat, their movements sharp and intense, and then they throw each other into the sticky mass where they are momentarily immobilized. They fly out ever angrier.

They hardly get to eat.

There is enough marmalade for 100 wasps.




*



Why do we fight?


Over the abundance.


Of marmalade.



****

Speaking of marmalade: I'm doing this thing with Amanda Palmer: http://bit.ly/AFPberlin it's her concert, I will be there doing something yet to be determined, perhaps playing tambourine, perhaps just listening to one of the most engaging artists I know.

And just so you know I will be launching another fundraiser soon, this one for my whole solo album.

And also you should know: Berlin is fucking amazing.