ant farm

waiting in line
yesterday
for "mother courage" in central park

which you can skip, by the way
(aside from meryl streep in the lead role, and james franco a few rows ahead of us, the three and a half hour show was a mess)

but before all this
hours and hours passed
as i sat waiting in line
for the public theatre's free ticket policy

and in this time
my legs grew restless
as the hours ticked by

i shifted
shook
moved myself about
anything to wake up those legs

when suddenly an ant
out of nowhere passed by
and stopped my movements cold

my first impulse
my very first
was
"Oh my goodness, I must save the Movie Star!"

i'm not kidding
the ant crossed by my foot
seeming more cartoon than real to me

almost as though it were some important character with a dream and journey of his own
straight out of
"antz"
"ant bully"
"a bug's life"
or god knows what else...

the reason i'm even writing about this is that i was honestly just so shocked
that my concepts of evolution, generally agreed-upon hierarchies, and interspecies importance
were completely thrown out the window
without any conscious thought
due simply to my awareness of film

these impressions i had about one particular ant's place in the world
were changed because of the movies
because of animation
because of some films i'd never even seen

sadly, the tiny bug seemed more human than most of the people in line around me
more worthy of attention and protection
more worthy of my time

because without a doubt
he (or she) had all his little cartoon ant friends to visit
and his whole cartoon ant family to provide for
and of course his (ahem, meryl streep-voiced) animated ant queen to protect

at any rate i stopped to take a picture
what with it being a celebrity and all
then proceeded to help him/her on his/her way

odd
not sensible
almost sad really

an ant
and a feeling
based just on make believe

"save him!" i thought
this star
this hero to children the world over
"save him!"

after all
he's got a premiere this weekend and a big budget feature to promote!