Lawrence
Hall, HSG
Fire Ants Devouring the Corpses of
Unhatched Wasps
Nature does not, in
the long run, favour life.
-C. S. Lewis, “On
Living in an Atomic Age,” 1948
A formation
of formicidae trekked north-northwest
Across a
vast and lonely sunbeaten expanse
Their imperial
quest a fallen wasps’ nest
Between a
lawn chair and a potted plant
The ants greedily
ripped open the paper shells
Like
Christmas crackers for the goodies inside
The
ghastly drippings of pupae in their jaws
Fragments
of dead wasplings for their demanding queen
A
formation of formicidae trekked east-southeast -
What,
then, is the number of an unnumbered beast?
