A Pretty girl in the Ants’ Nest

K Radhakumar

Boys in the market square
Turn to look at her;
She can hear the whispering of the evening.
She takes the shortest way home
And from the front door,
Goes running to look at herself;
Her face turns a lively shade of pink
When she sees herself in the mirror.
The mirror says,
‘You’ve bloomed into a pretty girl.’
She smiles her thanks and murmurs,
‘How sweet of you to help me
See life beaming with pleasure.’
She feels the mirror can’t lie.

Ants carry a dead earthworm
To their nest, their heaven on earth.
Small insects carrying a long worm
That lives in soil –
It’s worth a damn sight
More than pallbearers carrying the coffin
At the funeral.
Their industry is proverbial.
Can a man learn a lot just from watching it
And avoid the end of the world
Through a nuclear war?
Man has to act now
And stop the tragedy caused by
Man to man and man to environment.
If man wants to save the world
It’s now or never.
The world’s dying a slow death.
Borders skirmishes, ethnic cleansing, terrorism
These seem to be the order of the day;
The very fabric of the unity of mankind is at stake.

In this place, in this jungle
An ant colony is frightened,
Deeply frightened by
The strange sequence of events.
They see the pretty girl on the news;
She has been found raped and murdered.
Why so many teenagers take drugs?
What does the future hold
When you haven’t learnt from your friends
Who live in highly organized groups
In their nest all over the jungle?