Ants

This morning whilst brushing my teeth and trying with very little success to obey the dental profession's plea to brush in a circular motion and not in a side to side motion I noticed some ants scurrying about on the shiny porcelain doing no harm just going about their morning routine as was I with very little thought and even less concern I brushed them into the basin turned the tap on for a beat or two and flushed them away as I turned the tap off with toothpaste foaming around my mouth and running down the toothbrush onto my wrist a terrible guilt and a crushing sadness at my unthinking cruelty at my cavalier snuffing out of life overtook me and wrought within me an overwhelming desire to tip my head back and wail at the ceiling to try and assuage the soul-deep sorrow the deep-seated need for forgiveness that wracked my very core.