rabbit houses

i wasn't ready to be eaten 
but you were.
the house glowed like a bow 
of legs. i thought of being 
a soft tennis ball
rolling in the grass. 
the mother machine 
with her chattering teeth.
you were timid as they come
with your face always averted
from the trough. what is hay
but a rope to hold
into the next day. i told you
we should find a home elsewhere.
out in the woods where
the real rabbits practice witchcraft 
& worship moss. 
you shook your head
& laid down like a sofa.
wire wall. we saw the humans 
in their morning rituals.
their pressed hands & their 
headlight monsters. 
putting their faces on one 
at a time until they were 
a whole laughter. a tunnel 
under the home. a ladder into 
a tree. anything. we could
evaporate 
& become our favorite clouds:
you the feathery ones & me
the thick potato-gut ones.
you said you knew 
too much about meat & 
that you were curious 
about thighs. every house
is the same. there is one 
who wants to depart 
& one who wants
to be part of the process.
the houses are lined up
in a row. i would wave
to the other rabbits 
but they would pretend not to see.
sometimes it is easier to be
just one house instead
of a row. you said you prayed
to be taken next. in a next life
you believed you would be
a shoe maker or a chimney sweep.
so, in the night i slipped away.
i didn't stop until the sillos 
were pills in the distance.
the forest thickened like 
a scab. green green green. 
i looked for a rabbit house.
there had to be one. 
where there are rabbits 
there are sure to be nice enclosures.
a bowl of water. a paw's worth of feed.
nothing but dripping leaves.
deeper & deeper the forest turned
to wire. my hair down to 
my waist. my fingers long 
as sapling arms. then, fur falling out
in clumps. then, naked in the brush.
not ghost quite. not tetter or trip. 
paws turned finger & palm.
the trees coiled to curtain rode hooks 
& all the windows came alive again.
trees sitting outside. my rooted children.
then, the rabbit houses in their rows.
empty & staring back at me.
waiting for a visit from my spine.
need to build more in case 
they come. you can never have enough
rabbit houses.