Three Hares Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Tell me, how can you distinguish

The male from the female hare?

Is it that the male sits on its haunches

And that the female has moist eyes?



Is it that the buck goes hoppity-skip

And the doe's eyes are misted and glazed

Or that he tucks his legs when sitting

And that she dims her gaze when he is near?



For the male has a lilting, scampering gait,

And the female's eyes become wild:

And the male's feet strike and kick

When she is fearful and at the edge of tears



But when Jack and Jill run together

How much alike they seem -

Who can see which is he and which is she

As they bound away side by side?



And when two hares are fighting, it is clear

A third, whether he or she, will refrain;

Unless perhaps in a shared innocence

That presages peace and tranquility.



Alone in likeness they have become an illusion

In fighting and pairing they become a dream

In the possibility of the third way a mirage

Nothing distinguished - impermanent, insubstantial