NEPHART.COM

Dear Ant

I am sorry

if I have stomped on you

most accidentally

with my feet

while rolling on the grass

or falling badly

on a wet floor

I am sorry

I killed many of your friends

when I was a child

it felt like fun back then

now

it feels like regret

I am sorry

if the ball I kicked

bounced into your home

and turned

a whole neighbourhood

into dust

You had to begin again

from a single grain

sorry

for all those casualties

if they happened

because of me

sorry

I circled some of your friends

with chalk

pen

charcoal

and stones

watching them

walk in circles

while I laughed

I did not know

I had become

someone else’s maze

some of your friends

climbed onto my skin

I could not bear the feeling

so I threw them away

some of your friends

never came back

from puddles

that looked

like oceans

to them

I am sure

I deserve

a very strict punishment

because now

I know

what it feels like

to be stepped on

by someone

bigger

someone

whose shadow

covers your whole sky

We had monsters

we have monsters

and we will have monsters

they keep walking

without looking down

Dear Ant

maybe

that is how

every monster begins

not with hate

but with forgetting

that someone smaller

is trying

to make it home

forgive

my big feet

and my big body

Maybe

to you

I look

like a giant gorilla

taller than skyscrapers

every footstep

a thunderstorm

every careless movement

the end

of another world

But dear Ant

this big body

is trapped

inside a big mental cage

it is not easy

to be human

We build

our own anthills

of glass

steel

and concrete

and still

many of us

feel lost

I have watched

your people

carry food together

rebuild together

find each other

without saying

a single word

There is something

about that

I wish

we had never forgotten

Sorry again

for every trouble

I may have caused

Tomorrow

if I see

your people

crossing the pavement

I will wait

a few seconds

You are small

but

you are going somewhere

just like me