Facing Facts

Facing facts was never where he excelled:
avoiding them, he flitted like a blind bat,
guided as by sonar past obstacles
crowding the dark cave of his existence.

Still, some sight sifted through his shuttered eyes.
Onlookers might have guessed
he was merely another smug fat cat
forever grinning at the luck
that put him where, secretly,
he wished he would never have arrived.

Appearances aside, he was terrified
by his own fragility and that of those he loved --
a worrier, he merely masqueraded,
a greying rabbit with a nervous nose,
cowering in corners into which he heavily hopped
at the drop of each and every hat:

his mild pink eyes as tightly closed as any bat's
against the sight of hatchets
which might be flashing through the black
toward his hairy, cringing neck.