Mercy

So I'm lying on the sparse garden lawn on my stomach, body burning in the brief glimpse of British summer that we've finally been granted, laptop in front of me, screen barely visible in the sunshine. There are ants crawling about and one bites me on the elbow. Worse than a nettle but not as bad as a wasp. It got what it deserved.

Then another ant crawls over my laptop screen and then along the very top edge, and I'm about to kill it, but all of a sudden it reaches the sunlight and its body just lights up, amber, gold, like fire, and for that split second it is just beautiful in the simplest of ways. I can do nothing but watch it crawl down again, and away.

 I am stunned into mercy.