Portrait
of an Ant
Here
is an ant who has never
taken himself seriously.
He ambles
along the outskirts of the busy
ant tribe, occasionally picks up a leaf
and carries it to some forgotten place.
He drifts off for days at a stretch
and his children have taken to weaving
briars into their hair.
When will he notice the other ants
have built trees to live in
from all the leaves they've gathered,
formidable shade-bearing trees in which to live
before they go to heaven.
But this ant is no dummy--
this ant wages grace upon the world.
His antennae extend out to a far horizon
where time begins and ends.
