I Was Happy as an Ant, by Andrew Shattuck McBride

Andrew Shattuck McBride is a Bellingham, WA based writer with work
in Connecticut River Review, Mud Season Review, Cirque: A Journal for the North
Pacific Rim, The Raven Chronicles, Perfume River Poetry Review, and Clover, A
Literary Rag. He edits novels, memoirs, poetry collections and chapbooks.

About the poem:

I read John Ciardi’s translation of Dante’s Inferno, and came across the mention of
Aeacus’s prayer to Zeus to turn ants into men. I was so intrigued I used it as a poem
prompt.