Army Ants

by Tom Waits

From the album: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

Track 40 of 56 on Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006).

Duration: 03:25

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards cover art

Lyrics for Army Ants

The whirligig beetles are wherein fast With an organ to detect the ripples The arachnid moths lay their eggs inside Other insects along the borders of fields Or roads in clusters of white cocoons The ribbed pine bore is a long-horned beetle Their antennas are half the length of their body And they feed on dead red pine Robber flies with their immobile heads Inject a paralyzing fluid into their prey That they snatch from life in mid-air The snow flea's mode of locomotion's Strange and odd With a spine-y tail mechanism With hooks and a protracted tube From the abdomen to enable moisture absorption The female praying mantis devours the male while they are mating The male sometimes continues copulating even after the Female has bitten off his head And part of his upper torso Every night wasps bite into the stem of a plant Lock their mandibles into position Stretch out at right angles to the stem And with legs dangling They fall asleep If one places a minute amount of liquor On a scorpion it will instantly go mad And sting itself... to death The bombardier beetle, when disturbed Defends itself by emitting a series of explosions Sometimes setting off four or five reports in succession The noises sound like miniature pop gun blasts And are accompanied by a cloud of Reddish-colored, vile smelling fluid It is commonly known that ants keep slaves Certain species, the so-called sanguinary ants in particular Will raid the nests of other ant tribes And kill the queen And then kidnap many of the workers The workers are brought back to the captors hive Where they are coerced into performing menial tasks And as we discussed last semester The army ants will leave nothing but your bones Perhaps you have encountered some of these insects in your communities Displaying both their predatory and defense characteristics While embedded within the walls of flesh and Passing for what is commonly recognized as human

Listen On

More from Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

  1. Lie To Me
  2. LowDown
  3. 2:19
  4. Fish In The Jailhouse
  5. Bottom Of The World
  6. Lucinda
  7. Ain't Goin' Down To The Well
  8. Lord I've Been Changed
  9. Puttin' On The Dog
  10. Road To Peace
  11. All The Time
  12. The Return Of Jackie And Judy
  13. Walk Away
  14. Sea Of Love
  15. Buzz Fledderjohn
  16. Rains On Me
  17. Bend Down The Branches
  18. You Can Never Hold Back Spring
  19. Long Way Home
  20. Widow's Grove
  21. Little Drop Of Poison
  22. Shiny Things
  23. World Keeps Turning
  24. Tell It To Me
  25. Never Let Go
  26. Fannin Street
  27. Little Man
  28. It's Over
  29. If I Have To Go
  30. Goodnight Irene
  31. The Fall Of Troy
  32. Take Care Of All My Children
  33. Down There By The Train
  34. Danny Says
  35. Jayne's Blue Wish
  36. Young At Heart
  37. What Keeps Mankind Alive
  38. Children's Story
  39. Heigh Ho
  40. Army Ants
  41. Books Of Moses
  42. Bone Chain
  43. Two Sisters
  44. First Kiss
  45. Dog Door
  46. Redrum
  47. Nirvana
  48. Home I'll Never Be
  49. Poor Little Lamb
  50. Altar Boy
  51. The Pontiac
  52. Spidey's Wild Ride
  53. King Kong
  54. On The Road
  55. Dog Treat
  56. Missing My Son