Hodgepodge dilly-dally. Ambivalence

December 2, 1988

The rabbit trap is set - a box propped up by sticks the little boy will pull out while the rabbit eats the greens he set as bait. The child scarcely breathes, his fingers tremble on the string. A rabbit grazes not ten feet away, hitches ever closer over half an hour, close enough the boy can see the map of blood veins in the stiffened ears, the liquid eye, the dappled fur rising and falling with each breath, the nose twitch and the long white chips of tooth, the softly pointed feet which bring it underneath the trap. Even as his fingers jerk the string the child's cry of warning spills into the waiting air.