Chosen

An ant on white
slight line, moves across,
black.

You, slapdashed vertical,
spared,
while I
pluck, pluck
douse and drop
others
into
death.

Why did I
allow you
to get
through?


How
did I
decide
a shadow
crawling
up the wall or
the thin scrap down it
must be
plucked and drowned or
left free?



Seems to me
I remembered
your
slacker slant,
ant,
as
somehow
significant.