Poetry, The Key in the Door and other poems, An Affinity with Sheep and other poems

Ants

My brother’s skull hosts an army

of invisible ants that drive him barmy.

They regularly make him twitch,

squirm, grimace and itch.

He pokes a finger in his ear

rooting for ants that might appear,

then scours the cavities of his nose,

scratches his head or picks his toes

where ant-supporting fungi grows.

And now his hand’s inside his pants

Is that the nesting place of ants?