Rattlesnake Mountain Fable I

/ Rounded to a wide eyed clownishness / Crowned by the shifting bravado / Of his long, brown ears, / The rabbit peeked at the sky. / To him, the sky seemed an angelic / Pasture stripped to phantom tranquility, / Where one could nibble thoughtfully. / He longed to leave his mild furtiveness / And speak to a boldness puzzled by his flesh. / With one long circle of despairing grace / He flashed into the air, / Leaping toward his heaven. / But down he crashed against a snake / Who ate him with a meditative interest. / From that day on the snake was filled / With little, meek whispers of concern. / The crushed and peaceful rabbit's dream / Cast a groping hush upon his blood. / He curled inertly on a rock, / In cryptic, wilted savageness. / In the end, his dry, grey body / Was scattered out upon the rock, / Like a story that could not be told.