harpegnathos saltator
it takes a cosmos to raise an ant
and you-me likewise and all who-could-come-after
this queen has the same genome as her female workers
yet she and her sperm pack live and are viable up to thirty times longer
do the sums – if we could transfer that g.wizardry to us
how long could we live? what novel lives invent? what
futures predate in all our timely hunger?
without being queens
our family emerges from a wall of time
to sink into a pool of lies that opens in the floor
we slip among the friendless spawn
come up for air and squint at the horizon
another wall beyond this swamp of similes
another limit to our new found thought
so let’s be civil while we sort this mess
and mess it is
plums fall from the stretching branches of the tree of life
each plum a bomb its flight path unpredictable
inveterate gamblers we underestimate disaster and instead
put all we have on this damned horse that’s
running last