2.
Termite Queen
Having shed her wings,
the queen
basks in domesticity,
grotesque and pallid,
groomed by minions,
secreting chemicals
inducing a narcotic state:
their sole means
to populate.
Venus of Willensdorf’s
bulbous body,
cached in earth
like a termite goddess,
resembled this
royal isopteran,
torpid at the hub of their city.
Drudges seethe
with programmed activity,
serving continuity;
soldiers fend off the enemy;
the termite queen, blindly serene,
involuntarily reproduces,
unperturbed by monotony
or notions of identity.
Without her, life could not
be synchronised
in perfect harmony.