Rabbit Resurrected

i lay down in the grass on my back
arms overhead,
stretching my body long,
palms up…

something climbs inside my open hands
i almost startle, but it is
soft,
warm,
familiar

i lift it above me into the sky
and bring it down to rest upon my chest

its white hair glistens,
and we soak up each others essence like lovers
in perfect reunion

When we are satiated,
we set off for adventure

Another animal joins us,
a cat?
My childhood cat?

This friend is the one who protects the bunny
in the garden, outside the house
when danger presents

I step into the garden and lift the rabbit back into the safety of my arms, and then I

Wake.

And remember,

How long I’ve gone
without relationship
to animals.

Decades.

We had a white bunny once

a first birthday gift to my baby sister

She freed him one day from his cage
into our large yard
and he hopped his way over to the neighbor’s

To the window well
where Lucy snuggled with
her newborn puppies

The rabbit was returned to us,
decapitated,
except for the
gravel from the window well which stuck
to the blood
on its neck

I raised him overhead
and placed him atop an altar
–the gold mustang
under the carport
where I had gathered the neighborhood
children
in a circle
to pray
for his
resurrection