Poetry Wednesday - A Poem Inspired by ‘If birds can do it, why can’t we?’ By @Lisa Jensen - ‘The Invasion that Never Happened.’
A poem about the intrusion of the human world into nature in a way.
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Hello poetry people,
It’s Poetry Wednesday again, gosh the weeks pass by so quickly. It’s July already, not that you can tell by the weather here. This week, I have another prompt from
after a stunning poem about birds on a wire.For today’s prompt, I invite you to look around at the many places where human-made structures (or human-altered habitats) meet wildness. Notice the birds on the fencerow, the weeds pressing up through cracks in sidewalks, or the lone dandelion roaring from the middle of a pesticide-laced lawn.
What happens when the tame and the wild collide?
The beginning for this one just came to me whilst I was musing over a very different poem on the same theme that was being difficult to finish.
The Invasion that Never Happened.
There is a solitary small ant
standing on the matchbox
that lives tucked into the side
of the kitchen window ledge.
Just standing there, a scout,
her pheromone dispensing antenna
sending messages to the other ants
that are waiting close by.
She - all worker ants are she -
is black and just a little bit shiny
where sunlight splashes onto
her thorax through the grimy glass.
There was a storm last night
and it splashed the ground
so hard dust flew high,
struck and stuck to the panes.
She is stood on the front of the box
where the pattern is colourful,
bright yellows, red and greens
decorating the clean white cardboard .
It is a good choice - the matchbox -
in the shade of the herbs growing there,
plants pots a secure defence behind her,
she can safely survey the area beyond.
She sees me, hands covered in bubbles,
both frozen now, contemplating.
I am barely breathing. Her head tilts,
the antenna wave of danger. And she is gone.
A different safer route will need to be found.So that’s today’s poem. Tell me what you think. Till next time.
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Like it, Tamsin. For some reason I couldn’t see this post on your substack page,though, and only found it when I turned to my inbox. Perhaps I’m just missing things; but perhaps it relates to your note just now that responses were less than usual?