Leporine (Poetry)

One love gave her a kitten
his rival — a blood rose
both desperately smitten
too spineless to propose.

Her summer aged to autumn
once-ardent winds blew cool
the first love stopped a-courting
the second played the fool.

A cat grew from the kitten
the blood rose withered pale
her girlish heart turned bitter
avoided all things male.

The cat killed her a starling
the dead rose kept its thorn
and no one whispered darling
to soothe her dreams ’til dawn.

A newborn hare the cat found
still breathing — soft and warm
saved — her black hair wound around
its magick long-legged form.

She suckled it while three moons
waxed full and waned away
the hare’s thin breath measured rooms
grown restless — wild and fey.

So she took him on a lead
up to the meadow’s edge
let him run — and leap — and feed
beside the rain-soaked hedge.

Curious — he sniffed the air
enraptured by a scent
fixed her with a long hard stare
she knew what that look meant.

She slipped the cord — set him free
in seconds he was gone
grasses parting silently
raw instinct urged her on

to undress — allowing breeze
to stroke her naked skin
found grass stalks grown tall as trees
her legs grown long and thin.

She tracked his familiar musk
changed both in heart and mind
thus she vanished in the dusk
abandoned humankind.

Her old cat’s keen hunter’s eyes
the only ones who saw
through her leporine disguise
he’d look — half-raise a paw

acknowledge the soundless shift
of ghost-grey feet go past
where memory turns to mist
— each lifetime fades so fast...