Straight to the rabbit's nest, Hidden in bleached grass, blanketed with fur, Went the child's hand, And lightly burrowing under The barricade of draggled leaf and burr, Committed plunder. The fingers found and brought into the chill, A hairless creature panting under skin So new to air, it still Wore the cramped posture of the dark within The body where it grew— A secret, shivering thing, That in its black sleep knew The novelty of wrong and suffering. Who seeks to win the mother rabbit's blind Unguarded spawn to a sense of ease, Must learn his manners, not of human kind, But of the Sixth Day's veiled amenities. |