During the recent Wilton Manors Commission workshop April 9 on Public Art, a poem I wrote, “The Bunny On Wilton Drive,” was read to the audience by Commissioner Don D'Arminio. And now, I share it with you.

The Bunny on Wilton Drive

A Poem by Michael Varga

A sculptor shares his Thunder Bunny.

The Blueness of it hints of hidden graces.

Pedestrians pass it daily, hardly looking,

And to them, it seems ever the same fixture.

~

But as each pair of eyes peer onto its skin,

The bunny becomes someone’s reminder

Of a loved pet, of a favorite book, of a thing

Held tight to the chest, unwilling to let go.

The sculpture becomes the linking form

That ties each person to another.

That blue links to a sky blue and black,

To the Middle River where an old man finds a fish

That feeds the famished diner at the café

Around the corner on Wilton Drive.

~

We can connect the dots. This day ties

Us to another time before when wise

Ancestors designed a community

Dedicated to a free friending in the whirl

Of crafting lives of risings and fallings.

~

The sculpture may look the same daily

But each day is new and even that blue-

Ness is a little different to each passerby.

Nothing remains unchanged. The beats

Of our soundtracks retell each tale,

Each one unique, a story ending

In a beginning that looks alike

But differs in some deep soulful spark.

~

The Thunder Bunny is not silent.

It, like some blinking neon, shouts:

Are you paying attention?

Yes, we have a moment to ponder

What came before, what comes after,

But instead better to focus on this breath,

This whisper of a today too soon over.

Thunder Bunny is a sculpture by Hunt Slonem, on loan to Wilton Manors from New River Fine Art.