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Benno's avatar

I think I write too many poems about ants haha! But there were some fire lines here and also made me remember of my first traumatic exposition to war as a child in the movie Ants, intense!

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Josh Datko's avatar

That movie is pretty intense for a kid! These kind of ants do show up on my doorstep like this, it's a bit mesmerizing to watch, for a bit 😳

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Bev Levine's avatar

This is so good and will be in my keeper collection. Sticking with me right now "...shock has lost its awe" . Thank you for sharing.

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Josh Datko's avatar

Thanks Bev. I was reading "Poems against the war" which is an anthology of poems against the Iraq War in 2003. There was a lot of "shock and awe" comments there that I think subconsciously stuck with me.

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Daniel V. Gaglio's avatar

As I was riding the subway home last night the man sitting next to me was watching Ukraine war footage on his phone. At least I didn't have to see anyone die but "numb to the dead on our phones," is exactly right

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Josh Datko's avatar

Yeah, it’s a sad type of voyeurism — an odd type of pornography. It doesn’t seek to tantalize but it does flame some fantasies of I don’t know what exactly. Maybe it’s like watching Call of Duty twitch streams.

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Wil Price's avatar

This is a very well developed metaphor. The whole thing kind of felt like an epic simile in a way which made the reference to the 'Iliad' very meta.

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Josh Datko's avatar

Thanks Will!

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Sandforte's avatar

I love this piece, as it's filled with poignancy and an uncommon POV. Whoever will weep for their battles, indeed.

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Josh Datko's avatar

Yeah, it took some rewriting and patience to get it to this state. But I learned of these ant battles and had this in the back of my head.

I was sitting down to write this think, how much more can I say on this topic and then this fell out.

But yeah 😔

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