Ants

Ants move back and forth along their highway
Certain of it, as we are certain of tolls and bridges
Ice cream and fridges

Sped up with sun, racing to escape the season
Ants know their business
Greetings a chemical exchange
Legs, antennae
Accomplishing wordless natter
As they move in purposeful bursts
Run – stop. Run – stop. Examine:
A determined back and forth between military bases

Armoured, building site-ready
Prepared to deal with interlopers, to drag a fat moth single-handed
Back to the communal larder
Even to dissect a fellow half-crushed
And return it for some unimaginably unsentimental fate

Ants lead parallel lives
Which we neither interrupt, nor follow
Nor fully understand
Ants confuse with common purpose
Determine their own fate
As if we were insubstantial, irrelevant