Ants Up in Arms

The least I would expect to find on the top of the one-kilometer
long concrete wall that divides the river bank from the pot-holed
roads was the band of marching ants. In one long parade, effortlessly
outnumbering the countless and nameless human stupidities — the ants
made strides, giving our Foolishness a run for its money. Such was the
vastitude I had least expected to find there and had found them on one
star-lit night. In which language they had put across to organise
themselves — more disciplined than the great army of our great
country and more essential than our existence — I know not,
but I did get a line of their motives. They were, as I was informed
by the cloak of the night, up in arms against us: Against the pathetic
government, the pathetic army, the pathetic patriots, the pathetic poets,
the pathetic professors, the pathetic activists, the pathetic fathers,
the pathetic mothers, the pathetic children. Under the stars and the moon
they had shown what it takes us to be a pathetic animal. How true they
testify it is beyond our stupidity to understand their unity! How true in
their silence have our absurdities laid bare!


I SALUTE THEM THE ANTS