worker ants are we
carrying our load
that over the years
has become leaden, unwieldy
and grown knife-sharp
burrs digging into skin and necrotising flesh
eroding and abrading
laden with expectation
wants have transformed into needs
more urgent than water
than the very air we breathe
infinite possibilities are subsumed
in unrelenting grey dolour
as unstoppable as time itself
it takes strength to resist
to walk away from the pressure
and those who say ‘just do it’
and those who say ‘it’s not that easy’
are both right
each from their own perspective
each from their own prison
each hearing, but not listening –
empathy is necessary
more so these days than ever, perhaps
and yet the white noise deafens
we are hoodwinked and blinded
and through wilful isolation
we choose to fail to realise –
we are not alone.
——-