The Weight of A Life
After I see one ant carrying another
on its back across my bathroom wall,
I find myself googling do ants grieve?
It says with certainty that, no
ants do not grieve or feel sadness
like humans
and I don’t believe it. It tells me
about chemical reactions and all the reasons
an ant would logically want
to hold that heaviness on its bare back.
It says that ants do not have a concept of life
and death, and I wonder for a moment
what it would be like to live
without grief.
What it would feel like to hold
a lifeless body and not feel crushed
by the weight
of a life.
Listen to this piece
Read by Melina Charis
Melina Charis is a poet who writes at the intersection of grief, womanhood, and the natural world. She is a Phil Lit Poetry Prize winner and her work has been published or is forthcoming in Opol, The Faoileánach Journal, The Wild Roof Journal, andothers. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.
Website Links:
melinacharis.com
melinacharis.substack.com