Rabbit Time

You have seen this. You know it is true.

Wolf Winter gave birth to rabbit Spring.
Naturally she was surprised
but being a mother, she could not refuse to give suck.
Spring nursed with ruthless rabbit hunger
like blowing up a balloon backward. Winter shrank.
Winter disappeared inside Spring
and coated her rabbit gut
like a quivering membrane of silver-violet.
Each of Spring's babies, who were golden-green and numbered thousands
carried a speck of Winter at her heart.

You have seen this.

Spring's babies danced lapine dances and kicked up their feet
but behind each brown rabbit eye
dangled a strand of silver-violet, like a snow-covered cobweb
and every Maypole dance wound them
into a shining skein.
We all dance in rabbit time,
spinning violet silk. Next year
Winter will come not as a wolf
but as a spider.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside