My Mother Holds the Rabbit

Emily Patterson

to her chest. Its eyes two black beads
of fear. Its blood on her thumbs.
Its heart a hummingbird wing.
The cat skulks to another yard,
in search of another casual prize.
I don’t know if I can call it cruelty,
but my mother is crying, silently,
as we lay the rabbit in a cardboard box
lined with old towels. She leaves
to rinse her hands, but I know
the rabbit died between her palms,
cupped in a bright womb. I know
that later, when the heat breaks
like a bone, we’ll bury it near
the garage, where the neighbors’
sweetgum has begun to shed
its leaves, though it’s only August.
Where the alleyway is studded
with so many trodden stars.

Emily Patterson’s debut full-length collection, The Birth of Undoing, is forthcoming from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions in 2025. Her work is published or soon to appear in North American Review, SWWIM, Christian Century, CALYX, Cordella Magazine, NELLE, Stirring, ONE ART, and elsewhere. She is also the author of three chapbooks, most recently haiku at 5:38 a.m. (Bottlecap Press, 2024). Emily lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio and works as an editor with Highlights for Children. Read more at emilypattersonpoet.com.