Rabbit in the Moon

by Alan Jackson

In Aztec mythology, the Centzon Totochtin (“four hundred rabbits”) were a group of deities who met for frequent parties; they are divine rabbits, and the gods of drunkenness.

Adore the inebriate fornicator
modern disciple of Centzon Totochtin
brother to the rabbit
in the moon

Accept that sudden drunken levity
stalks me teetering on lifelong tripsteps
laughter light as rain
in my face

See me sometime Celtic hellraiser
hitch up my genes and tug tipsy forelock to
fluffy pagan deities
in our past

Yearn for long-gone sensuous springtimes
when sober steady hand or buttoned bodice
were sacrilegious insult
in God’s eye

Forswear those Christian bandits
who stole our precious rabbit rites
drowning mystic meaning
in black sin

Jealously they lopped poor Eostre’s
ears and left their hollow abomination
dispensing chocolate resurrection
in her stead

Suffer the indignant distemper
of Father O’Bitter and Sister Twisted Perpetua
get thee behind me paeans
in the arse

Put not your trust in theism that
cannot bend a paw or twitch a whisker
to holy hedonism
in its rule

Pity the horny helmet Viking
grandiose halls full of feasting warrior gods
but no Valhalla for the bunny
in the Norse

Admire the Aztec race whose pantheon
embraced four hundred randy godlings
intoxicating rabbits
in the moon