.unwelcome Visitors Poem by Shirley Hanley

.unwelcome Visitors

Rating: 5.0


How old are you?
How long have you been on this earth I asked
as I squished you between my thumb and forefinger...?

And then I wondered
if a thousand years from now
some esoteric butterfly in another world
will dance into a spider's web
because I took your life...?

Tiny little ant,
biting little ant,
food raiding little Argentine ant...

I found you in my sugar bowl,
the one Elizabeth forgot to close...
you and a friend
scurrying about like you'd won the lottery,
legs waving frantically to and fro
a smile pasted upon your voracious little mouths.

I found you on top of my stove, in my dinner.
You've taken strolls across my computer screen
and again tonight on the remote control.
TV anyone...?

You even, on occasion visit my bed,
unwanted scavager
serpentining over my pillow
and up the wall.

You paid my friend Shirley a visit.
She found hundreds of you and your kind
crawling over her 95 year old mother
half a mile away.

Since the summer reached full bloom
you and your armies
continue to invade my space...

Today while writing this poem
right under my nose
you came on silent feet,

hundreds, perhaps thousands,
scrolling across the carpeted floor
from some obscure place
beneath a corner baseboard.

Your target
an empty plate of juice
leftover's from a lunch
of Nectarines and Turkey loaf,
regretfully unattended and forgotten...
tempting your mighty hordes.

I feel like I'm under seige
here in my big leather chair
as you and your kind go running to and fro,
up and down, over and under my body.

Hey! ! ! I shout
I'm tryin' to watch television here!

There was a pair of you
scaling the seal inside the refrigerator today.
Were you trying to beat the heat...?

Time and again I arise
to find you and your friends
holding a convention in my kitchen
and in my bathroom toilet
where you took a chunk out of my butt cheek.

Teensy, tiny little Argentine ants
you have become the bane of my existence
here in my tiny little apartment
at Peppertree Ranch.

[ Neighbor Annie said we need an anteater here at Peppertree] LOL

8/31/09

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Kesav Easwaran 14 October 2009

the unwanted intruders...everywhere from nowhere! nice narration Shirley...ants at times are a disturbing lot...inside house inside mind! thanks i liked...a ten for this write

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Tom J. Mariani 13 October 2009

I have never found so much humor about ants since my mother told me when I couldn't sit still, that I must have 'ants in my pants.' I think she sparked my interst in poetry / in 1953.

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