your rifle rests cold
as we stitch you in to this
rabbit-lined great coat
There was a great coat in grandmother's attic. Was it from the first or the second world war? Someone had lined it with rabbit fur to keep him safe on watch along the harsh, exposed, mined sands at Drigg. On these wide open beaches, the tide goes out a mile, then races back in the black, a covert nightly incursion.
Preserved in the curtain-less attic, among dry geraniums, overwintering, the coat covered the bed of whoever must sleep up there, in an overcrowded Christmas household. Pixies on watch, skyward-looking, listening with ice-breath to creaks of stairs and landings, ears straining for a passing jingle bell.
See him by the wireless, marking a card as the football results come in. An ordinary man. A simple promise, quite forgotten now, not to let them take her. A promise made from the depth of gold and black flecked fur. Put away with the coat.
He still wears the mittens sometimes. Just now and then, in sleep, his paw twitches.
Run, rabbit, run.
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Victorians would give and wear a lucky charm of a rabbits foot, sometimes even silver-mounted, to bring protection to the wearer. The superstition was very widespread still in the late twentieth century, at least in this part of England, and is likely to have ancient origins.
Run rabbit run, was a children's nursery rhyme. It became a war time hit in London in 1939, said to have been a favourite with Winston Churchill, suggesting the enemy would soon be running. There are versions on youtube. An adapted version is the theme tune for tv show, 'Dad's Army.'
Romans, Vikings, and local man John Paul Jones (1778 on behalf of Benjamin Franklin) took advantage of this vulnerable terrain to make attacks. It was well understood to lend itself as a place for invasion. The courage, vigilance and endurance of those on guard is memorable.
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THE GOOD OVEN *Wattpad Featured* (aka 'Re Ply')
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