Chance = Change

THE PASSOVER BUNNY
‘Twas the night before Easter,
And as was the habit,
In the deep hours of morning
There sat an Old Rabbit
On the floor by the firelight,
Cloaked in his mystery.
Again he had come
To set straight Springtime history.
Yes, it’s true, though you may think
His mission quite funny,
He’d come to remind us
Of THE PASSOVER BUNNY !!
A creature far dearer than chocolate or honey:
Yes, the Passover, Passover ,Passover Bunny!

(refrain: yes the Passover, Passover, Passover Bunny)

What we think we know now
Is all hogwash and syrup,
Misconceptions begun back in 1st Century Europe
When the Saxons loved Eastre,
A goddess so raucous,
She fertilized Spring into a sexual caucus!
And since her pet animal was a large Hare,
The legend of “the Eastre Bunny” started there!

BUT THE TRUTH IS –
A truth that will make your hair curlier-
Is that Spring Rabbit honors began so much earlier!

Let me take you back now to the hot desert sands,
Back to Egypt, the home of the Pharoahs’ vast lands:
We all know that Egyptians then worshipped the Cat.
(All we rabbits could never quite understand that.)
But suffice it to say that mankind has its habits,
And the Hebrews more wisely gave honor to Rabbits.
More wisely because we are not only cuter,
But we have a biology far more astuter!
Because we are lagomorphs ,
Superfetation allows us two litters at once –
No vacation!!
But still it’s unique, (it’s great fun) also useful,
Historic, too, really, since we’re here to be truthful.

Y’see, it’s how we came , as part of the story
To come to hop down History’s long path of glory:
For, when the mean Pharaoh turned Jews into slaves,
To move all those rocks, we hopped out of our caves;
While Jews sweated by day, to set each stone in lime,
Bunnies came out at night, to help them save time!
We willingly chained our fur selves’ into gangs,
Got the Pyramids built! Thereby History hangs!

And when we ran short of our own Bunny Power
Wondrous superfetation produced more in an hour!
We worked side by side with the Jews we respected
So, though little known now,
We’re forever connected!

With Moses we exodused,
Helped him part the Red Sea,
Bunny-hopped through the desert,
My mespocha and me.
Now you ask yourself why doesn’t Hist’ry record
Bunnies’ fabulous deeds?
Now I don’t want you bored
And this poem runs long, but okay what the heck:
It was our Hebrew pals, knowing time would connect
In a biblical way feats both Human and Bunny.
So they played ‘round with Hist’ry,
Did a trick or two, funny:
They decided to take all the weight on themselves,
Thus assigning the Bunny to history’s shelves.
For they knew that if people began to think Rabbits
Could lift heavy loads, they’d develop bad habits
Of working all Bunnies right down to the bone!
And they wanted all Humans to leave Buns alone!

They wanted us free to be furry and sweet,
To spend time being fertile and lucky of feet!
So to pay Bunnies back for their help so well placed
Our part in the story’s been all but erased!

AND FOR THAT WE ARE GRATEFUL,
For you see it’s sublime
To be given the gift of both leisure and time
To further our furriness, make pretty eggs,
Oh that’s right, Chickens do that,
And there’s no time to seg-
Ue into that story…
Next year I’ll do that:
I’ll tell you the story of a big Easter Hat
And how it turned out that our Bunnies’ decor
Made of our ornate eggs
Had them begging for more…

But for now I shall leave you, with goodies to taste,
As you ruminate over old History’s waste
Of a tale rarely told, of the Jews’ friends so sunny:
The rare humorous Tale of
THE PASSOVER BUNNY!!

This I wrote in honor of Nancy Truitt's Easter Dinner Party 2007
I also took matzohs with thick dark chocolate icing, in honor the Legend!