Rabbit Skull
\nby
\nRadiance Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Up past the white-crowned clover patch,
\nand the stacks of firewood in the woodshed, up past
\nthe late-July cornfield with its stalks growing
\nyellow tassels from the newly forming
\ntightly-swaddled ears of corn, I found a rabbit skull
\non the ground beneath a linden tree. It had clearly
\nbeen there awhile, and I\u2019m surprised I hadn\u2019t noticed it before.
\nI picked it up gently by the eye socket and examined its rows
\nof molars leading up to the curved incisors at the end of its mouth.<\/p>\n
Of course I got to thinking about the surprise of being caught
\nand how wide its eyes must have been, and how hard its heart
\nmust have beat, and how long it was before the last.
\nI thought about how the flesh of the rabbit was long-ago
\ndigested in the belly of a fox, where it turned into milk for her kits,
\nand it was hard not to smile and weep at the same time,
\nit was hard not to stand and wonder, looking up
\nat the morning sky, it was hard not to lift the little skull
\ntowards that self-same sky, and pray.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n