Rabbit music

Last night, I sat down on the side porch with an old Gibson tuned to D minor. A rabbit sat in the grass not 20 feet away from me, munching. He must have seen me, but he showed no signs of getting ready to leave.

I started to strum, quietly at first. He froze for a time but then returned to his clover.

The sun, already below the horizon line, was losing its grip on our hemisphere. I was playing more naturally now, picking out melodies and thumping out the rhythm. At first, I played simple and straight, so as to not frighten the little guy. But before long I was playing for him — pretty melodies and gentle undulating rhythms. Harmonics and overtones rang into the deepening dark of evening.

Ten minutes passed, maybe more. And although night was closing in and visibility was getting poor, I could swear my rabbit stretched out on the grass where he lay and just listened … guitar music on a late-summer evening with the moon overhead and the scent of clover in the air.