"Manifesto: Ants" poem by Aspen Hickman

Photo credit: Unsplash

Go and lay in the dirt,

Let ants crawl into your eyes

Your mouth, your ears, your nose.

Let them color your irises

With the eggs of their young,

Let them rest in the pits 

Of your molars,

Creep down the back of your throat 

Down into the warm cave of your lungs

Then you may see what it is to be 

A stick in a nest

A stone in a river.

Breath in. Open your mouth. 

You have always been

As you will always be

Cry over roadkill.

And water the weeds.

Remember to bleed.

Run your fingers over your teeth,

and marvel at the bluntness,

The greed.

Eat air until you can say you've flown,

And breath water till 

You can call yourself drowned.

Hold your mother till she can see all you've seen

And hold her longer to make up for

What she cannot show you.

You are not a body 

Until you are consumed 

By all you have devoured.