Myrmecologist Poem by RIC BASTASA

knowing the ant inside
a page of that book of
insects,

in particular that
myrmecology, of its parts

its thorax, a body with
eight jointed legs,
the ocelli,
two antennae, tibial spur,
the compound eye, its sting
and powerful mandible,

you think you master it
as the parts are few
and too simple a creature
for a complicated scrutiny

by even cruelly dismantling
those parts and still identify
each portion apart from the other,

such a shallow learning,
until you
are finally bitten and by
instinct you smash it to death
with your thumb and nail
and smell the scent of
blood in the core of
its very soul.