"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
-St. Augustine

Carrot on a String

“Carrot on a String” by Roxanne A. Stokes © 2009

Why do rabbits chase the carrot on a string?
The unreachable, the unattainable
And sometimes forbidden
Is it simply for sake of the chase
Or a method of self-defeat
In order not to know what victory feels like,
Fearing success and what it truly means to finally catch
That coveted carrot
Afraid that it might not be as satisfying as they dreamed?
Or is it due to mere stupidity,
Unrealistic hope?
They chase and chase and chase the drifting carrot
Always a few inches ahead of their reach.
They chase the teasing carrot
Not noticing the others simply growing out of the earth
Still and waiting to be picked from the soil and
Enjoyed by the willing rabbit.
They choose instead to chase
The carrot on a string even if it means
Dying of starvation.