The Carrot That Sticks

We tend to think of rabbits eating carrots most of all,
If not exclusively—a terrible cliché.
With carrots high in sugar, they should not be given often;
One in nine pet rabbits thus gets tooth decay.

The feral rabbits never even bother eating carrots,
Nor root vegetables of any other kind.
They ought to go for mostly grass and hay and leafy greens,
So how did carrots reach the forefront of our minds?

The answer is Bugs Bunny, who appeared in 1940
Chomping carrots as a man might smoke a cig,
In reference to a character Clark Gable played six years ago.
(The movie he was in is still quite big.)

It’s funny now to think how such a clearly loony icon
Shaped the way we’ve seen reality so long.
To think that even Disney took the Warner Brothers’ cue!
Let’s not perpetuate a notion when it’s wrong.