by Damian Kuthalane

Created on: July 16, 2009

A thinker's paradise

I wrote this when i was staying over at a tea estate once in Matale, Sri Lanka. I remember i was reading the illiad and later my pal and i took a walk and we saw this red ant fighting with a bee. It was one of the coolest things i ever saw n i remember watchin it for about 30 mins or so, n came home straight after that and penned these lines. Its more of a sequence of thoughts than a proper poem, but then again, thoughts are what most poems are hehe. Tell me what ya'll think:

Last morn as i in solitary muse
Walked down the mountain, saw such a sight
Which made me halt and sit on the spot,
To watch two very strange creatures fight.

For on the ground a huge red ant,
With head raised high as if daring the skies;
And above the little warrior circled a bee,
Thrice fierce, ten times its size.

Never had i seen such a sight 'fore,
Rugged mountains around me, a battle nigh,
It spirited me back to the tales of old,
And in my mind became stout Achilles, I.

Before me rose a monster to the skies,
With a face of a lion and a dragon's hind,
It's goats body covered with spikes and scales,
And a giant sting on its tail i spied.

Armed with only one weapon as the ant,
He with pincers, I with sword,
We both stood there facing our enemy,
He for real, I in my mind.

And suddenly the Chimera flew down at me,
So the bee at the ant did dive,
But with skill did the little warrior move
To dodge its nemesis, as did I.

Lightning cracked somewhere above,
As Jove himself at the match did gaze,
And the skies darkened as the dark browed king of Hades frowned,
Waiting for one to loose to claim his prize.

The next time that the Chimera attacked,
Ready was I with my sword drawn back,
Dodging again its fiery jaws
I drove my sword hard into its flank.

For so had done that brave little ant,
It clapped its jaws over the bee's hind limb,
Holding on in a vice like grip,
Not letting its foe to the skies to climb.

And as I held firm with my feet on the ground,
Grasping the sword's hilt with my fingers hard,
The monster dragged me to the edge of the cliff
While I clung on to branches with spare hand.

But branches broke and twigs snapped,
As ant and I held on to the ground,
For bee and Chimera with all their strength,
Dragged us to the edge, to plunge to the skies.

Then, fate smiled on us and sent to our aid
A wind, on whom rode Hermes from Zeus,
That herald of gods, who, bidding us to stay,
With promises to bring our friends who lay close.

And anon he came, his duty fulfilled,
Following him a swarm of ants,
Fierce as lions, eager for a fight,
Myrmidons! From the thicket nigh.

They destroyed the wings with many a sting
Of arrows and pincer, & brought down their foe,
Never to rise to the skies again,
To work mischief and mayhem as before.

Then that gallant warrior, that little ant,
As I cut off that feline head,
Releasing the hind, it chewed the bee's neck,
And laid his huge fearsome enemy dead.

Me; I felt as if a hero would
Who had just slain a monster of ancient time,
Gallant warriors never pass, for in that ant I saw
A hero, an epic and a myth that will never die!

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