"I HAVE NEVER BEEN MUCH FOND OF ANTS"

I have never 
  been much fond
     of ants.

Yet they are
  much extolled
     and touted...

by people, 
  by cognoscenti 
     who know stuff
       and have studied
          ants.

"Ants are industrious."
  "Ants are busy."
      "Ants are strong."

Those little miraculous 
  tiny bodies
     and skinny legs

are much stronger
  ounce for ounce
     than any human,

and what kind of skilled
    Creator could devise
       little brains, eyes,
         digestive systems
           and likely... noses!

(And let's not forget
   their stingers!)

"You should not
    carelessly step on an
      ant," it's been said.

Mea culpa, for when
    I was five...
       back then

there were ants everywhere
    in the forties
        (things were wilder),

I'm talkin' about big beds
    of ants, hundreds...
        big red ones!

Yes, when I was five
    in Clovis, on that hot
        sidewalk on West Grand,
          all summer long,
           I squashed them...

with the big round front wheel
   of my jumbo 
        lime-green tricycle!

For when I was three years old
    living down there in 
      sandy Dawson County.
        south of Lubbock

I blundered into a big ant bed,
    "working alive" with 
        big red 'uns...and
          they ate me up!

My little body was all swelled up,
    I had red "cure-chrome" 
       spots all over, like I
          had measles, 
           and I was sick.

So I got even, with my tricycle...
   many times over! Though
     they were different ants

it didn't matter to me. After all,
   don't they say: "Revenge is
       best served...as a 
             cold dish."

You see, I hadn't yet learned
    the big lesson of life...
       and the hardest----

Forgiveness.

********30******
BY MIL
01/11/14