Villanelle for the Baby Bunny in the Bank Parking Lot

Poetry

Poor abandoned bunny, she said with a wail

when my ex saw him huddled beneath my bumper.

Who can you trust after such a betrayal?

She asked, Little buck, why’d your mother fail?

Divorced, we’d just torn our assets asunder.

Poor abandoned bunny, she said with a wail,

unmoved by marriage’s end but this beast so frail.

She said, He’s defenseless! Put him under cover!

Who can you trust after such a betrayal?

I hid him in a Hosta. He commenced to quail,

though, uncovered, he’d die like a bridge jumper.

Poor abandoned bunny, she said with a wail.

We drove to the old house. Check on Cottontail,

leaving, she ordered. The doe’s neglect still stumped her.

Who can you trust after such a betrayal?

Helping one who cheated me beyond the pale,

I found the kit exposed once more. Thumper,

poor abandoned bunny, I said with a wail.

Who can you trust after such a betrayal?

Toni Artuso is a transfemale writer based in Salem, MA. Recently retired from a 30-year career in educational publishing, she is now transitioning, as well as refocusing on her writing. Her poems have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, The Aurorean, Ibbetson Street Press, Italian Americana, Main Street Rag, Pegasus, Pine Island Journal, Poetry Depth Quarterly, U.S. Catholic, Late Knocking, Z Miscellaneous, and Poetpourri.