From the Council of All Beings: The Ants

The ant: An ancient prolific, productive insect
just keep going
     you may not want us around
            but we just do what we need to do to sustain our colony.

My ant colony

You put bricks over our home
   we incorporate it into our design

You leave food out for us?
   We take it

We are constantly exploring,
   climbing on things, persons, you
looking, fielding things to incorporate into our design
   what is useful?  This twig, that leaf
       That bread crumb, and sticky spot of jam
           that dropped on the floor.
We see everything as a resource to be used.
   We call upon our brothers and sisters to help harvest
         its sweet essence for gelling together what needs sticky

We know you have a distaste for how we take over your
   kitchens, your patios, and that spot in your yard.
When will you understand life is messy.
   We are constantly in each others stuff.

There are no boundaries
   Why do you wish life between us was cleaner, clearer,
        non-existent?

Do you not know the paths we make with our colony
    aerate your yard, help the irrigation of the earth?

No matter.

We have work to do.
    You can try to silence us.

We are prolific and industrious and focused on the task ahead of us.
   We know our role and do it.

         (c) 2016 Points Of Light Music


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This writing and multimedia piece were part of a "Council of All Beings" activity where folks are asked to invite a being to be represented by them and then create a mask and monologue.  I couldn't shake the ant colony.  When reading the piece imagine walking with the paper plate colony in hand shaking and walking in quick short bursts here and then there and over there, then there, as ants do. This was embraced by much laughter from the other participants.