Before us

On Earth before us, birds flew
And flowers bloomed
And there was a chitter among the leaves
And thundered steps of herds across the plains

And no one kept beasts as cattle
No one milked them
They went unguarded by us

No one gathered crops
to be stored away in granaries
for hungry days

Before us, peace reigned
No soldiers waging wars on battlefields
No one to enslave

When we came to Earth
we brought this sin into the world
Though we do not think in terms of sin

We are the bold, we are the new
We take, and grow and build
settle distant colonies
across the far extremities

And our palaces are filled with chambers
And orchards in the dark
And the queens, who we do not obey
as we are already sisters of one body

We think as who we are, together
The landscape is patterned by our footprints
We build bridges with our bodies
We smell the color that guides our way

And we prospered, warred and thrived,
so long before you
in our empires of the ants