Trapped

This is a rabbit box. I built it on Friday in the hopes of catching a local rodent that has plagued our domicile. He's a big bastard, too. In case you've never seen a rabbit box, basically they're a way to trap small animals without hurting them. Once caught, you can kill the animal inside, set it free, whatever...My grandfathers both used rabbit boxes to trap rabbits in their gardens. Sometimes the rabbit got eaten. Often, the rabbit box would catch other animals - possums, squirrels, rats...and sometimes they got eaten, too. If I catch my guy, he'll be relocated about fifteen miles south of here, in a nice, wooded area like ours here.

They way it works is, the animal - enticed by tasty vittles at the far end of the box - enters. Once inside, on his way down the wooden corridor, he bumps into a stick right in front of the vittles. That stick releases a lever, to which the front door is tied. Gravity takes care of the rest. It's all over before the li'l animal even knows what's up. An hour later, he's free again, kickin' it fifteen miles away from our house.

I built this box on Friday and all the while could hear Janelle & Eleanor in the kitchen. Janelle was making dinner. I was drinking beer and putting the finishing touches on the box when the aromas of supper filled the air. "I hope I get him," I said to Stella, who then licked my hands gratefully. I haven't gotten him yet. But I will. I can feel it.

"Rabbit Box"

While I was still in elementary school
I discovered Daddy's tools
and amassed a small pile, of scrap lumber.
And I built a rabbit box.
And i set it facing north.
But i caught a possum and a kitten,
both of which were a bitch to set free
cause I thought they were going to bite me.
But we all three escaped safely.

Well once I took my single shotgun
and put on my camouflage
and hid in the neighbour's pasture by the little cow pond.
And finally after a long time
a bunch of doves flew by
and landed in a huddle on the power line.
And so I aimed with an eagle's eye and fired,
but it was two pigeons that fell like bean bags into the weeds.
Well they sure looked like doves to me.

-Vic Chesnutt