Today,
He can’t recall
Where he got the notion
That red ants would not bite him,
As if he had some kind of force field or
Natural superpower, but he was convinced of it.
And to prove it, he sat down in the dirt atop a hill
Of angry ants as his astonished buds looked on.
Cocky grin soon turned to chagrin
And with legs afire in cutoffs,
He leapt up scratching and
Howling and hopping
Like a rabid rabbit,
Realizing he was
Clearly wrong.
He was not
Special.
Not a
Bit.
By Tom Vandel
(Originally published in Bel Esprit June 2023)
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