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Ant Colony

by Sarah Tachau

You asked me how to kill
An ant colony
I told you to press firmly on each speck
Until you thought they were no longer breathing,
Until you felt the life melt to mush beneath the flesh of your thumb,
And repeat

You asked me how to kill
An ant colony
I told you the wound never heals,
No amount of pressure can stop the bleeding,
And once you give up murder
They’ll envelop your thoughts
As they would honey
Just to tempt you

I no longer kill
I let them crawl
And watch as they form stacked lines,
Wordlessly wandering
Until they inhabit this empty page.

Photo by Spot The Top on Unsplash

Sarah Tachau

Sarah Tachau is a satirist and aspiring poet from the Philadelphia area, studying English at Macalester College. Her work concerns the intricate growing pains many of us share, but seldom speak of. Her current literary inspiration includes the works of Ocean Vuong and Marge Piercy. She was awarded two honorable mentions for her poetry in the 2023 Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and placed third in the Pennsylvania Student Keystone Media Awards (District IV) for a satire editorial. She has been published in the University of Pennsylvania's comparative literature journal, the Zelosophic, as well as in Macalester's student-run literary journal, Chanter.