Ants

Walk carefully so you don't step on ants

A grandmother told her grandson.

And the grandson did, but he grew

And his head became further from the ground

And the plight of ants seldom troubled him,

Though, in fairness, sometimes it still did.

They are not special, his textbooks implored,

And his professors confirmed

And his girlfriend wanted his attention

As did his friends and his bosses

And he grew to learn that he was not special either, 

Not to strangers

Nor passing comets

Nor the impersonal forces of the universe

But to those who stopped to notice him

He meant at least a little or some

And from that he prospered and grew older still 

And when he watched his granddaughter play

He told her 

Walk carefully so you don't step on ants