AMAZEMENT

Amazed at ants that while they come do go
I'm frightened by their self-sufficiency:
for they are what they do no questions asked
and if such bits of life machines are they though small
so perfect that in truth they know
the where and whence that have become their own
and death they would ignore if it were not
at least and last such useful instrument
with which to make new life out of the still.

But though their tiny liveliness increases
the rounded awe in which I look at them
and it does pain me that they'll never know
themselves just as they are in their dark toil
as immemorial now as Earth itself.

my pain as such is more amazing yet
as it does prove that knowing one's own self
is worth all pains though the price becomes as high as
the enormous silence that awaits beyond.