Rabbits in Winter (Haiku)

alert, hare listens – /
white sides soften her outline /
in the patchy snow //

nostrils steam faintly –  /
rabbit rests under cedar /
in a nest of down  //

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I modified the second haiku slightly – in its original form it was part of a haibun written for the Ligo Haibun weekly challenge.

What’s the difference between a rabbit and a hare? Rabbits raise their young in burrows underground; hares raise their young in depressions called forms. Rabbits are born hairless and blind; hares are born with fur and open eyes. Hares are larger than rabbits and have larger ears in proportion to their body. Hares have 48 chromosomes (to the rabbit’s 44) and have not been domesticated.

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First Image: Albrecht Dürer.  Hare, 1528. Wikipaintings.

Second Image: Cottontail Rabbit in the Snow. National Park Service.

Third Image: Cedars in Snow. Wikimedia.

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