Ant By Jimmy Chen

Ant

By Jimmy Chen

I like it when they come in swarms

  And carry heavy objects

Like peanuts and bits of bread

Some of them carry sticks,

  And go feed their Queen

And they like to build their cities,

They seem quite nice, and I'm sure they have nice stories,    

  But they are always in quite a hurry, rushing about,

I wouldn't wish to ruin their schedule, exercise awaits.

The Aunts

By Joyce Sutphen

I like it when they get together

and talk in voices that sound

like apple trees and grape vines,

and some of them wear hats

and go to Arizona in the winter,

and they all like to play cards.

They will always be the ones

who say “It is time to go now,”

even as we linger at the door,

or stand by the waiting cars, they

remember someone—an uncle we

never knew—and sigh, all

of them together, like wind

in the oak trees behind the farm

where they grew up—a place

I remember—especially

the hen house and the soft

clucking that filled the sunlit yard.