The Poetry of Ellin Anderson

A RABBIT

Ellin Anderson
 

Her heart was crimson velvet,
With veins of gold — not brass —
Too fine to leave a baby rabbit
Trembling on the grass —

But selfishness and arid science
Kept her company,
And worked to crush her soft defiance:
"Let the rabbit be."

Be what?  Be caught, by cat or hawk?
Be frozen in the rain?
Or live a week, in daily shock
Of hunger, thirst, and pain?

Returned from loving — and from hating
Love, in distant lands,
She found the rabbit's bones there — waiting —
Waiting — for her hands.
 

© 2008 by Ellin Anderson. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be copied or used in any way
without written permission from the author.

St. Patrick's Day
Seabrook
Tiger and Blue Jewel
Winter's Hill
Maple-Key Song
November in Camelot
Wassail Song
Veleda
Cinderella
The Rooster at Midsummer
Liberty Enlightens the People
The Leap
The Goldfinch
Three Bears
Song of the Lily
White Tree at Twilight
The Christmas Tree
Song-Sparrow
Grand Bois du Nord
The Owl
Moth Summer
Verticordia
The Little God of Joy
Pear-Petals
Photographing the Moon
Rose, Do You Know
The Two Pining Bachelors
Lorelei
Persephone
Avalon
The Harvest Chorus
The Maple Mask
Ghost Cardinal

The Little Heath-Rose
Found
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Song for the Harp
The Spinner
 
The Prayer of Cephalus
Circe and Ulysses
The Black Arts
Tristan and Isolde & Jupiter's Two Casks
Nectanebus

Home Page

More Poems by Ellin Anderson

The Little Mermaid
Vermeer
Anne's Hearth