Deep In Our Hide-a-way Lair

A Writer's Cramp poem:28 lines


Deep In Our Hide-a-way Lair



Outside the wind kept on whooping and yowling...
But we were deep in our burrow, snug in our lair.

I could hear the gray badger two meters away,
Sharpening his claws or scratching out holes.

Nearby, a young fox was sniffing our trail.
He scurried away as a cougar prowled by.

In the back of our tunnel, one youngster whimpered.
I turned around, to go lick at his baby fur hide,

But Ma heard him first. She’s a fine young bunny
With a coat as luscious as a patch of leaves.

So I sniffed at dropped carrot tops.
My lips neatly filtered out pebbles and dirt.

Another kit, the smallest, let out a screech.
Ma cuddled and soothed. Soon the babies all slept.

My nose again fidgeted at faraway odors.
I breathed them, defined them, then settled back down.

I licked at my lips, laid my head on the wall,
Remembering freedom's joy-filled scampers.

Winter was pulling at autumn, sucking out color.
Gone were such runs and our foraging of greens

I scratched at one ear, bit at my hindquarters,
Then rubbed the left side of my head on a rock.

Ma bunny hushed me, then hopped to my side.
Her cold nose soon made me forget about itching.

“Don’t wake them,” her sweet voice entreated,
Soft as the sunshine with its heat on my back.

Outside the wind kept on whooping and yowling...
But inside our burrow we were snug in our lair.