Tuesday, January 16, 2024

The Promised Ants

 

In the Kingdom of the Blind the one-armed man

Got strangled by a python. In the dirt

The ants formed marching bands and bit the dust,

Then spat it out. The songs the flicker sang

Were all percussion, made my chimney ring,

And sounded like a salesman on the phone.

The ghosts don’t bother me. When we play bridge,

I am the dummy, and we all fall down,

Each time a little slower, till we rise

Like half a loaf. And half of me recalls

That we were promised ants, and it was kept.

The locusts don’t come round much any more;

But one-armed men keep showing up to ask

If I would deign to donate to the blind.

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