Rabbit
for Tarfia and Fita
The rabbit has a funny set of tools. He jumps.
or kicks. muffled and punching up. In pose
the rabbit knows, each side of his face to whom.
he should belong. He hobbles and eyes. This
is the dumb bun allegiance. This bunny, even dry and fluff
is aware, be vicious. will bite down your finger stalk.
will nick you good in the cheery web of your palm.
Those claws are good for traction. and defense.
This bunny, forgive him. There is no ease. His lack
of neck is all the senses about a stillness.
stuck in a calm. until household numbers upend
his floor. until the family upsets the nest
and traipses off. Then stuck in a bunny panic.
We each stab at gratitude. In our nubbing, none
of us do well. We jump. We kangaroo. We soft seeming,
scatter and gnaw. Maybe the only way forward
is to sleep all day. one eye open. under the sink.
Like the rabbit, we could sit in our shit.
Chew at the leaf of others’ dinner. Make
of each tile on the floor a good spot to piss. No,
it doesn’t get much better. And like the rabbit
we do not jump well from heights. We linger the dark
until it is safe to come out. To offer a nose.
a cheek for touch. the top of a crown. Nothing
makes us happier than another rabbit.
Copyright © 2020 by francine j. harris. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 26, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.
“I had a rabbit as a little girl and I loved her immensely. After losing her to a cruel neighbor, I think I always had a vision of the domestic rabbit as kind of docile and defenseless. But having lived with one last year for a month or so, I realized they can have a way of keeping their boundaries, of letting you know they are not defenseless even if they like being around you. It was odd because it feels like a follow-up poem to a poem about trancing rabbits in my second book. This bunny has much more agency. She demands respect. She’ll come to you when she’s good and ready.”
—francine j. harris
francine j. harris
francine j. harris was born in Detroit. She earned a BA in English from Arizona State University and an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan.