A Cloud Covers His Face (2)
Painting and Story by Lehan Winifred Ramsay
Every ant we see is carrying a small world on his back. You didn’t know? It’s easy enough to tell once you do. Every so often they slow down a little and stretch out their aching back. That’s all. One tiny gesture. Go outside and find one, and and watch for a while.
We don’t see the ants that don’t carry a world. They haven’t fallen yet. Still up in the clouds. Golden hued. Not yet afraid of heights.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Lehan, I like some of the paintings better than others, but the short stories below are always spot on and comliment the pictures beautifully.
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What about Ant Music. I liked that a lot at the time.
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Gee, the stories, artwork, and recipes come thick and fast at the Pigs Arms!!
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Yes, I have seen the world of ants. They can carry huge loads, well beyond their size and weight.
I once ate raw ants. They are supposed to cure arthritis. They taste sour but not like vinegar, more like lemon. Sorry ants. I won’t do it anymore.
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They are probably sour from the formic acid, which is an insecticide that they use to defend the colony. Ravens, and other black birds, exploit this and delouse themselves by sitting on an ants’ nest and getting the ants really angry. The ants go wild and start spraying acid at the intruder.
So, ants are good if you’ve got lice, perhaps, not so good if you’ve got arthritis.
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I remember years ago reading in “the papers” (we all believe “the papers,” don’t we?) that there was a black market in Iran of ants. So much per matchbox full, like pot. The addicts would buy them and then, when they needed a hit, they’d spread them in the palm of one hand and smash the other hand onto it, while holding them close to their nostrils. The ensuing formic acid would send the ants to their 70 or allocated virgins and the addict to… I don’t know where they were sent but they must have liked it there, since they paid good money to buy something that the whole country is covered with!
Maybe it was all Reagan’s boys who had spread that nasty, anti-pot propaganda!
Good picture once again, Lehan. Good observation, too. Ant the swaggie. Love it!
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Atomou, your story has all the hallmarks of an ‘urban myth’; kinda like the rumours during the sixties and seventies that you could get high from smoking banana skins…
Were I you, I would question my sources on this data…
😉
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Quite so, asty, quite so.
I did question my sources back at the time; and, like I hinted, it smacked of Reagan era propaganda. I don’t hear of that any more. But I DO remember, a number of us in the staffroom laughing at the various articles written, I think, in The Age, at the time.
I just might do a little googling…
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I think that aspirin and Cola was the other urban drug myth in the 70’s.
We did have some teenagers admitted to the hospital some years back, who’d boiled up some datura plants and drank it. We were all set for delerium, tachycardia, hyperthermia, and worse. The little shits sat there yawning until they were discharged!
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Big M, I accidentally ate a datura flower once. Sort of accidentally. Walking back in the dark in the countryside from a Thanksgiving party night and one of my companions said, “Here. Eat this.” I opened my mouth at the sight of the shadow of his hand coming up to my face and ate what was put into my mouth, that tasted a bit like a pumpkin flower or summat by memory. “What was that?” I asked. “A datura flower.” I was bit scared although it didn’t do a thing to me that night that I noticed.
Next day I believe I had an intensely interesting ‘trip’ as a result although I do not reccommend the experience to anyone and do not suggest it cannot be had naturally … to the contrary. I believe the experience can be attained naturally and best sustained naturally. I wrote substantially imaginative material after I woke in the morning – and felt intensely thoughful, affected for the day and the evening I spent with friends – clearly I thought affected by a drug affecting my consciousness and highlighting my creativity, but not my awareness of myself and my surroundings and my ability to participate socially was intact.
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At least, Big M, there was some truth at one stage to the ‘aspirin and cola’ myth; you see, before the ’70s Coca Cola actually DID contain a minimal amount of cocaine (“It’s the real thing!”) and it is possible that the effect of this may have been enhanced, if not by the addition of aspirin, then perhaps by a strong placebo effect!
😉
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