wading crests across concrete
as heat waves ripple forth,
then retreat

the colony marches against the sun,
whose arrhythmic beating of heat
was conquered by the column.

scattering and scrambling over the dead
so as not to meet them so soon,
disjointed reception of pheromones
left a sole fool mistakenly on the moon

march on, even on the moon so sharp,
even alone or through the dark,
for death’s favor is earned only in cowardice
and so painlessness becomes powerlessness
as the heat-distorted pavement stretches on