in the beginning there were bunnies

then the bulldozers

took away all the trees of the forest

and all the clover and tall grass in the meadows

the bunnies

had nowhere to hide

nowhere to hide from the coyotes and owls

who ate them up

and didn't bother to spit out the bones

until one day, when the trees and meadows

had grown back

there appeared a bunny

a cottontail named mary lou

mary lou was bold

scorned the tall grass, afraid of nothing

ate her clover in the open spaces

for all the world to see

come moon or come sun

one day there appeared, magically

it seemed

a second bunny, her name was elizabeth

elizabeth was shy, even timid, kept close

to the tall grass

where she could flee at the owl's moonlight shadow

or the coyote's brazen howl, time passed peacefully

mary lou

and elizabeth nibbling clover

not so far from each other, one boldly

the other shyly

one may muse upon fate

or philosophize over right and wrong

or question 

the point of existence itself

one may ask—is it better to live boldly

and die young

or shyly, like elizabeth

who kept close to the tall grass

who will surely

be nibbling clover for many seasons to come

as for the bold mary lou, all that remained

was the puff

of her little white cotton tail