[#7 to the Office]

Once upon an office

He was a jack rabbit chewing his leg off, caught in a trap that you'd set, that others couldn't see nor imagine. It had sprung when forsythia ate up the sunlight when he was sent out to pasture like a dud of a stud. Did you know what this meant? What this means?

You'd belched rules and biting regulations. You'd demanded somersaults, a jig to your tune. He felt bridled and broken and stole out the barn door, fled from your drama, your hot branding iron and your target-poor aim.

Beleaguered from the acid of this burning, he found the bitter edge of the fringe and hung on. The crumbs of famine fed his urge to survive far better than your poisonous feasts.

He hunkered down, belched out the gas of your hatred, vomited pain and picked out scattered buckshot every day from his nightmares, then picked himself up and ran away.

Soon he was like a three legged jack rabbit, loose on the prairie, his soul enamored with birds and the shadows of flight.

He pranced like a stallion in the presence of light.

© Kåre Enga

[168.197] #7 November 6, 2011.

Note to self, previous version: He was a jack rabbit chewing his leg off, caught in a trap that you'd set, that you still cannot see nor imagine. It had sprung when forsythia ate sunlight as the stallion was sent out to pasture, a dud of a stud. Did you know what this means?

You belched rules, biting regulations. You demanded somersaults. He felt bridled and broken and stole out the barn door, fled from the drama, your branding iron and your target-poor aim.

Brittle from the acid of this second burning, he found the bitter edge of the fringe and hung on. The crumbs of famine fed his urge to survive far better than your poisonous feasts.

He hunkered down, belched out the gas of your hatred, vomited pain and picked out the scattered buckshot every day in his nightmares, picked himself up, then left.

Then he was a three legged jack rabbit, loose on the prairie, his soul enamored with birds and the shadows of flight.

He sang in the presence of birds.