Haystacks

She says if I’m not there the sun won’t set.

She holds Bailer wide-eyed, turns, runs.

Bailer trips after, tangling legs.

On the tracks he falls and cracks a tooth.

Forsooth he says. Haystacks doesn’t look back

 – as if she could see me, the ghostbunny.

You know me. Suddenly you feel cold.

A mist, fur thick, brushes your cheek.

A chill presses your chest and your heart

skips a beat. That’s my leap.

Haystacks climbs a line of circular bales.

Close as she can get to sunset she runs.

Panting at the edge she looks into my

eyes – at the coal red glow of cinder sky.

She sighs. Hoar frost slithers over her shoes,

snaking up white socks.

Bailer climbs up. He wiggles his tooth,

he finds the nerve. Bbzap. Bailer’s knees lock.

He looses his footing and falls.

Bailer calls out, sandwiched between rows, stuck.

Haystacks doesn’t look. Nappy hair now crowned

with frost, off the edge she steps up into

clouds. We crowd around, leaping, jumping,

the entire warren, misty brume bounding

plains and sky. We fly, we float,

grazing on the ghost of an Ancient Ocean.

Ghostbunnies

I.

Ghostbunny, ghostbunny, wiggle your no-nose,

wiggle your no-tail, wiggle your no-toes.

Ghostbunny, ghostbunny, are you really there?

What is it I feel jumping through my hair?

Ghostbunny, ghostbunny, leaping in the mist,

hugging dizzy ground, holding in our breath.

Ghostbunny, ghostbunny, take me with you, please.

Gliding over plains, hopping on the breeze.

II.

The ground is up, the sky is down,

the mist is thick, fog all around.

The ears alert, the mind awake,

hoary haystacks shimmer and shake.

My cheeks are cold. The cold is warm.

Beneath my feet the bunnies swarm.

They bend my knees. They swing my seat.

They lift my arms and kick my feet.

I am not here. I disappear.

Mighty moonbeams freeze knees and hair.

Additional works

by Gwylym include stories about Bigfoot . . .

a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice in an imagined Puebloan setting . . .

time-travelling chickens (Transmission)

and more!

Cano is currently in your local bookstore in anthologies

Red, Hot Salsa and Voices in First Person.

.

Perhaps you live in Colorado

visit Think360 Arts Complete Education if you’re interested

in a residency with Cano.