Read "The Leader of the Rebel Drones..."

Sci-Fi Short Story #3 has published my poem "The Leader of the Rebel Drones Laments the Death of His Last Brother."  The complete issue is available in electronic or hardcopy format. 

This is an old poem of mine, dating from 1996, and it belongs to a set of poems that I wrote in my main science fiction universe to explore the development of sentience in a species of insectoid aliens.  They bear some resemblance to honeybees, wasps, and ants so if you know those insects you may recognize some traits.  The first poem in the set was "Queen Choufa Beseeches Her Sister" and it was published in Fantastic Worlds  #1 Summer 1996.  I think the others from that set are all still in my archives, unpublished as yet.  It focuses on how the underlying potential  for sentience and conscious decision-making has to evolve before someone can have the idea  of doing things different than what instinct is urging.  The individual poems follow a story arc as Queen Choufa and later others begin to change their actions and choices based on thought rather than just blindly following instincts.  Of course, not everyone thinks this is a great idea, and things don't always work out smoothly...