credit unknown

… Continuing with the “Dog Days” collection, today I offer the first of two poems inspired by my hunter-dog’s interactions with representatives of the local lapine league:

ROUND BUNNIES
Each time we step from the house
one hops provocatively into a bush;
another sits, so much brown rippled fur
breathing fast, a still life waiting 

to spring into streak of white fluff
zig-zagging like a child’s toy
run amok; or full-out bounds
both light and wide, putting athletes

in mind of hard training hours –
the gait, strength, spring-dash reserves.
Each ball of fur extends skinny ears
a twitching radar of safety or flight

each a singular target for my dog
who lives this moment without memory
of the last – this eternal fantasy –
each rabbit a gauntlet thrown

at her feet, a challenge accepted
unaware that they are everywhere ‘round.

swb