The Rabbit and the Dream
*This poem is for Tom, a friend we lost to suicide during the COVID pandemic. As I read through this poem today I heard your high pitched laugh in the audience from the first and only time I performed it back in 2017.
Sometimes, I FEEL LIKE I’m the rabbit on the TRIX commercial
Silly rabbit, TRIX are for kids.
silly Danielle, people don’t read anymore!
I’M SERIOUSLY LIKE THE RABIT
Only The rabbit is day dreaming about
TRIX
rubbing the magic lamp,
begging the magic genie to let him eat the TRIX
while I’m day dreaming of writing books telling people stories, movies, shows, poems, I’m rubbing the magic lamp and begging the real world to please let me be an Author
even though I only submitted to one publishing house 15 years ago
when I wrote my first novel
and because yes one rejection was enough for me to
never send out another query letter
Oh but those children eating TRIX’s they haunt the rabbit,
The same way my internal voices haunt me
It’s like on the commercial when the rabbit is racing on his bike
so he can win a box of TRIX
but he’s losing
and he’s thinking
“I’ll never catch em.”
and he’s hunched over
and he’s giving up
and I’m like yeah, I feel you,
I’ll never be a published author.
I’m slumped over and feeling defeated
But then he
realizes the lime green must be really really fruity
and he can taste it,
And I can see my book in people’s hands and it makes me really really happy,
and the rabbit wins by an ear, says the commentator
and I complete a novel, FINALLY!
But does the rabbit get the Trix?
That’s the real question.
YES the rabbit gets the Trix!
but just this once!
The rabbit says,
wow
orangey orange
grapedy purple
raspberry red
and
lime green all for me,
I’ll never be the same
and then he looks hungover,
as he hangs from a tree,
probably coming down from his sugar high.
and I’m like wow
Smashwords publishing,
electronic distribution,
a playlist that goes with my book, Take Me Away With You,
And an audiobook for sale,
I’ll never be the same
and then I release it all
and I lay in bed feeling hungover
From everything that goes into selling a book
And the TRIX of my mind
return.
Silly Danielle people don’t read anymore.
Love always,
Danielle Mallett
