6.
His winter totem
white, sacred, rare.
Furtive as the arctic fox,
brisk as the snow wolf –
the Snowshoe hare.
7.
The dancing hare, a dandy
in his drab frock-coat,
tunes in – one ear glows red
catching the light,
the other a furry
exclamation mark.
8.
Between earth-lore and mystery
is the eccentric hare,
whose expressive ears lie flat,
waiting that moment of madness.
9.
Look, he says, I know what it is
to be the wilderness,
the lifeguard of a landscape
and to inhabit it
under the wheeling sky.
10.
The hare has the heart of an Olympian,
sprinter, boxer, courser,
high jumper, track and fielder,
tumbling like a stone.
Then curled like an ammonite,
feral and fossil together.