The Ants, Part Two

First, I tried to ask the ants to leave.

They didn’t listen.

Then it got loud inside for several months.

Constant parties.

No one ever turned the lights out. 

If there were ants with us then, we didn’t notice or mind them.

There was a pond behind the house a little ways.

It was at the edge of the yard. 

I don’t think anyone knew about it, but we knew.

If you followed the pond for a half mile, you’d get to Ant City.

They put up the Queen there, and built ant castles around her. 

It was opulent. 

There were so many in there.

The ground was moving like a sea of ants.

The city walls were dirt mounds, as tall as our noses.

We’d stand outside the walls and watch them. 

Inside, it smelled like honey.

And the town had a sound to it. 

Like a warbled hum or a rolling murmur.

It was so soft, this sound that you’d almost not believe in it.

But you could feel it in the ground, the hum.
And you could smell the honey.