erin

bunny without a hop

Lost your hop! the other bunnies say and they laugh at the joke but he doesn’t find it amusing.

He misses his hop and he doesn’t know how to get it back but when he tries to explain the other bunnies don’t understand.

They tell him to cheer up, to just get up and hop.

He tells them he doesn’t remember how.

The other bunnies leave him alone after that.

The bunny sits quietly and watches the grass and waits for the flowers.

Flowers usually make him feel better.

And then maybe his hop will come back, even though he cannot see the point in hopping at the moment.

The hop usually comes back, eventually.

But he does not know when eventually will be so he waits and watches and tries to remember what hopping feels like.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

DIY spring

We have to have Spring now, my littlest sister declares.

This declaration is followed by a watering can emptying over my head.

I manage to save my book from liquid annihilation, barely.

April showers to bring the May flowers! she explains before I can ask about the details of this do-it-yourself Spring.

But she doesn’t have flowers, she takes my book away and hands me bunch of fuzz-tipped pussy willows instead.

Then she gives me a paper parasol.

Oh! I should have given you this before the showers, she says, frowning and turning the empty watering can upside down and letting the last drops fall on the grass.

I’m not sure painted paper works for April showers, I tell her, and the frown goes full-blown Grumpy Cat.

We’re doing Spring wrong! she wails, flopping down on the soggy grass next to me.

It takes awhile, but I manage to convince her that we’re doing Spring just fine because there’s no snow, and we gather our parasols and pussy willows and head off in search of proper flowers and a towel to dry my hair.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

a lonely giraffe spun into myth

They say the silver giraffe is nocturnal but that’s not true.

He suffers from insomnia.

They say that he will visit you if you leave an apricot out as an offering on a night with a full moon but that’s not true either.

The silver giraffe wanders aimlessly down alleyways and through backyards and parking lots at mid-day or midnight, regardless of moon phase.

He is awfully fond of apricots, that bit is true-ish.

Sometimes he is difficult to see, because he is shiny and reflective and walks very quietly.

They say if you find him he will heal your broken heart and that’s not true true though he often wishes it was.

But if you find him and you ask he will sit with you and listen to your secret sorrows and never tell a soul even if you don’t have an apricot for him. He just appreciates the company.

And you might feel better anyway.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.