112919c

Why doth the worm cast out its work
Upon the cold wet ground
The castles builded from its bricks
Could make such clever mounds
From miles around the ants would flock
And never make a sound

110319c

the last fire-ant hill
of the season pounded flat
Queen waits for spring

100319c

Our Last Family Picnic


It wasn't so much the number of ants that came to the picnic, but their size. One of them ate Granny's chocolate cake in one bite, and Granny in another. The rest of us ran, but only I made it to the car.

082519c

tracking in sand
ants scale the dunes

081019d

Jaws

in the Land of the Giants
we call ant lions man lions
ants
we just call them lions

070519

Armies travelled through time
stamped out the hexapod empire
that had usurped our place
then the aliens came
could've used a few giant ants
armed with AR-15s

052919b

Ilium, Thou Art Forgotten and Eternal

Humans passed furiously, as they had lived;

Earth’s biosphere quickly recovered,

one critter or another learning to consume or wear

nearly every thing they’d been pleased to make.

Vertebrates had taken a hit,

that small branch of the Tree,

too close to humanity, perhaps,

but what remained were the great evolvers.

Mice, rats, sparrows, and all the small and generalized

set about filling empty niches;

they were poised to do it.

So, no big-domed giant roaches,

propounding theories about vanished colossi,

piloting sky galleons, or other steampunkery;

instead, convergent evolution built

a new urban roach, when cities rose again,

and again, and again,

for each new thoughtful Twig destroyed itself

as had the primates;

vertebrates decapitated themselves so often,

in terms of intellect,

one might have thought

they had a corner on self-destruction.

The Ant Empire,

when it finally came to pass,

showed otherwise.

032819

infected ant
dies after climbing a tree
spores to the wind

030819b

ants wage total war
on the kitchen floor
scorched earth policy

122718b

sun

moves

behind

the anthill

in the giants’ land

are ant lions our only hope

091418b

24th century man
lost in the river  of eternity
washed up from an eddy
in the 6000th century

he knew things would be different
but the bee people
from 1 million A.D.
surprised him
their colonization of the past
implacable and thorough
eradicated  primates
as  a matter of prudence

the ant people
from a few million years downriver
had not reached them yet

020217

sunflower seeds upon the ground
would taste as sweet
but six-legged thieves
and felines
seeking feathered meat

122916c

The Fires of Heck

Ants swarm the cake dish;,

it’s the queen’s birthday:

nothing too good,

no risk too great.

The papier-mache dragon,

on guard from the mantle

belches wood pulp,

which they ignore.

Dragon dreams a fairy, blue,

wants real flesh,

and a prehensile tongue,

teach the vermin a lesson,

and then take flight.