Underneath an unusually pale Frith,
A rabbit sits alone,
And looks up.
Wonders why
He's lived so long,
He's lived at all,
He's so near death.
Wonders, even,
If the Black Rabbit will come to
Take him away.
A previously undying faith
Is fading away
With his body.
Because nothing can cheat death;
Because he knows, in his old age,
That he can't escape it, and it's coming soon.
He looks to the sky again
And sees only one thing
Through the clouds:
Only El-ahrairah
Can live forever.
And it would be silly
To wish to be
Immortal, undying like his faith.
But a rabbit's a rabbit;
As men are men.
He's only that:
Just a rabbit
With no Owsla experience,
Never been a chief,
Never fathered kittens,
Unimportance is all he has
To everyone.
But after all
He's just a rabbit.
He can't help
But hope.