Cosmic ants’ work in progress
Writing
Aishwarya Srivastava
It’s not the way they build
your life
the cosmic ants
it’s the way they borrow
blocks from others
I am almost 23
and so far they have built
me
a rented home
and the knowledge of how
you turn your clothes
inside out
when you hang them to dry
and I heard them
whispering
about borrowing
more blocks
from my Nana’s life
soon
I will scold
every little child
for running fans
in empty rooms
and cut cucumbers
as the true sign of affection
and I will lose
my closest ones
to kindness and a
disobedient tongue
soon I will start
to give all I have
to anyone
and everyone
the cosmic ants know
what they are
doing
if you ever feel it’s random
remember
cosmic ants see in five dimensions
Concept Note
Recently, there was an ant infestation in my house. While my flatmate and I found ant-genocidal ways to end their tyranny, ants slowly made way into every thought I was having.
I started thinking about how they were borrowing things, grains and granite, from everywhere to create something. Something they had meticulously planned.
That reminded me of how everything I am and will ever be- which is always a work in progress, believe me, even after death- is also made up of small building blocks borrowed from what others around me are. As if there are some cosmic ants that are constructing my being as I get older.
Artist Bio
Aishwarya Srivastava is a full-time content writer and a part-time fiction enthusiast. Her short stories and poems have been published in various journals including the Flash Fiction Magazine, The Antonym, The Roadrunner Review, Litgleam Magazine, and Literally Stories. Her biggest achievement yet is becoming the favourite human of a Labrador who absolutely despised her at first.