Excerpt from

THE SONG OF THE FIVE

Verse Three

(Translated from the original Ant by Rumi Mosquitoswallow)

No rest for the five shadowwalkers

chosen by fate

to bear the magic of the eclipse.

Our queen had perished

[. . . but her magic had not.]

[. . . but her plans had not.]

We labored, a body without a brain . . .

. . . and no less intelligent for it.

Tirelessly, we burrowed and dug

burrowed and dug

burrowed and dug

to release

what has always been buried beneath

what has always frothed and bubbled

Magma, the destroyer.

When it erupts, only one animal in a million will survive.

The arithmetic is easy.

One animal in a million

. . . is probably an ant.