Jan 26
THE PROMISE
I feel like the hare
hanging by its heels from a tree
his open guts accusing me
even in death
the hare continues
to stare
"That's one for the ***!"
my kind uncle laughs
my mind screams and screams
"Forgive me..!" I ask of the hare
"I am new to this life
& death thing!"
"Don't forget me..." says the hare
"Just keep me forever
in your mind!"
*
It was like a theatrical scene that the moment had set up..there was Uncle Mikey and me lying in the field that falls down to the river and this hare comes and sits beside us...another living being just soaking up the world through the process of mental osmosis. We all just sat together....no distinction being made between animal or human. I could see every hair on its coat as if it had been drawn by Durer.
Then suddenly my uncle my lovely kind uncle gave the hare a karate chop in one quick flash. And that was it. I was totally shocked at how fast my uncle moved and the result. I couldn't imagine it being done just as I couldn't imagine the hare coming to sit with us. It totally traumatised me.I promised the hare I would never forget her and she could lived in my mind forever. That night we had hare but I wasn't even there...I was out in the barn crying. This poem became that promise.
It was silence deepening into an even greater silence and I thought the miracle was that the hare dared to trust us. It was a privilege to sit with such a wild creature...all of us gazing into a sunset. Nobody was breathing except for the hare. I was afraid to breathe in case it scared him away. And the unbelievable act that my uncle had been contemplating all that time. I also thought that surely it wouldn't...couldn't be possible. Surely. But my uncle surprised both the hare and myself with an agility he had never shown a sign of...he was an easy going laid back type of guy. He sure had me and the hare fooled.
I feel like the hare
hanging by its heels from a tree
his open guts accusing me
even in death
the hare continues
to stare
"That's one for the ***!"
my kind uncle laughs
my mind screams and screams
"Forgive me..!" I ask of the hare
"I am new to this life
& death thing!"
"Don't forget me..." says the hare
"Just keep me forever
in your mind!"
*
It was like a theatrical scene that the moment had set up..there was Uncle Mikey and me lying in the field that falls down to the river and this hare comes and sits beside us...another living being just soaking up the world through the process of mental osmosis. We all just sat together....no distinction being made between animal or human. I could see every hair on its coat as if it had been drawn by Durer.
Then suddenly my uncle my lovely kind uncle gave the hare a karate chop in one quick flash. And that was it. I was totally shocked at how fast my uncle moved and the result. I couldn't imagine it being done just as I couldn't imagine the hare coming to sit with us. It totally traumatised me.I promised the hare I would never forget her and she could lived in my mind forever. That night we had hare but I wasn't even there...I was out in the barn crying. This poem became that promise.
It was silence deepening into an even greater silence and I thought the miracle was that the hare dared to trust us. It was a privilege to sit with such a wild creature...all of us gazing into a sunset. Nobody was breathing except for the hare. I was afraid to breathe in case it scared him away. And the unbelievable act that my uncle had been contemplating all that time. I also thought that surely it wouldn't...couldn't be possible. Surely. But my uncle surprised both the hare and myself with an agility he had never shown a sign of...he was an easy going laid back type of guy. He sure had me and the hare fooled.
