The Parable of the Wise

Gift a worker ant with wisdom,
She will still be small and scurry
On six legs and respond to scents.
She will still not be able to make eggs,
And her queen will still be none the wiser.
She will still feel compelled to feed larvae
Or to go in search of food for the colony.
She may well perceive marvelous things,
Have insights into what it is like to an ant,
What it means to be an ant, to have
An ant’s place in the scheme of things.
She might even see why and what an ant
Can or can’t manage ever to understand,
However gifted, however profoundly wise.
But she will still be an ant, and as an ant,
At ant size, she will live her life of insights,
And as an ant, not a god, wise ant, she’ll die.