The Boy and The Anthill

Posted on 2023/04/20 by Bartholomew Barker

I’ve been that little boy
with a magnifying glass
looming over an anthill
on a sunny afternoon.

It was interesting, even comical,
the way the ants ran from my heat ray
and the ones who couldn’t find cover
curled as they were incinerated.

Notice my use of the passive voice.
I’m ashamed of those insect deaths
but will cut myself some slack and hope
“boys will be boys” is adequate.

But it’s not when little men are boiling
our planet and profiting from the spectacle.

(For today’s prompt, write an animal poem.)

About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
This entry was posted in Poetry and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

21 Responses to The Boy and The Anthill

  1. kristin says:
    2023/04/20 at 20:52

    Poor ants. Poor us.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Michele Lee says:
    2023/04/20 at 20:56

    An astute observation poetically articulated. Nice job, Bart!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. berniebell1955 says:
    2023/04/21 at 06:02

    Hitting nail squarely on head.

    Another one for m’blog….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Syl says:
    2023/04/21 at 13:59

    I remember those boys in my neighbourhood…..

    Thanks for visiting!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Kym Gordon Moore says:
    2023/04/21 at 15:22

    Oh my goodness Bartholomew, your brilliant poem reminds of the film “The Ant Bully.” This little boy named Lucas terrorized an anthill because he was being bullied. One of the ants who performed magic zapped and shrunk Lucas to their size and taught him what a colony of ants mean to their survival and purpose. So I understand your boys will be boys saying. But, I also agree with your last two lines, although the greedy money whores don’t see it that way! UGH! 😫😡😤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. pensivepoetblog says:
    2023/04/22 at 10:01

    I, too, hope you will be forgiven. I also have seen this ritual, but never participated myself. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was fascinated by it, however. Concentrated sun energy. Amazing stuff.

    M

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. berniebell1955 says:
    2023/04/23 at 04:17

    And again….

    http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16260

    Note the juxtaposition with the Strathnaver burnings – a similar impulse – power and control.

    People can be utter *********

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. Bridgette says:
    2023/04/25 at 10:54

    Powerful. Yes, some boys didn’t grow out of the hurting others phase. Power isn’t about obliteration.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s