The Chase

Summer is here!  On the Fourth of July we celebrated the holiday in our traditional Poor Clare way by working out in the garden to “Make America Beautiful”—at least our own little corner of America within our cloister grounds.  Many rabbits have been seen playing in the garden, especially as the sun is setting and the shadows lengthen.  So far, none have found their way into our vegetable garden!  One of our Sisters wrote a poem about her encounter with a baby bunny that she had inadvertently flushed from its nest as she ran some garden machinery.  Abandoning the machine, she went after the bunny.  Here is her account:

The Chase

Zigging

and Zagging, the baby bunny

Eludes

my clumsy capturing run,

Until in a leaf heap he buries his head,

Naively neglecting his other end.

So at leisure I guess

Where is the rest

And nimbly pinch

His safety nest.

It is a choir master’s dream,

That open mouth in a perfect “O”!

The melody though,

Is a soprano scream!

Pity this desperate straightened grief!

So I bear the chastened thief

Away to the garden gate.

There I grant reprieve

And there he gains release.

Returning then to the garden’s peace,

The garden’s Lord I face.

Wryly

I smile when he dryly states,

“You

give me a finer chase”.