Mark Weber | December 23, 2003 | Photo by Janet Simon
ANTS, AGAIN
I need to fix the swamper
been so windy lately no point
in filling the house with
any more dust than
has already settled on
the shelves of ancient crockery
been smoky, too, what
with half of Arizona going up in
flames, and also fires north of
here in Los Alamos, it’s been
both hazy and windy
this summer and hot, very
hot, I need to fix the
swamper, I need to
ask the Indians which chant
will convince these ants to
climb out of here, they’re
all over, the heat seems
to be their element,
crawling along the rim of
Janet’s great-grandmother’s
kosher gravy boat and into
my own grandmother’s hand-
crank meat grinder back over
to the spine of my talismanic
copy of Adele Davis’s LET’S EAT
RIGHT TO KEEP FIT and even seem to be
thinking about JOY OF COOKING
my Mom gave Janet
so many years ago
I need to check the oil in my truck
but
first
I need to fix the swamper
who’s pipes burst last winter
when the Earth was tipped
in opposite tilt
from now.
Mark Weber, July 2, 2011