Bunny Bother

[deckardcanine]

I’ve seen a lot of rabbits in cartoons and real-life costumes,
As if they’ve multiplied like real buns do.
Their number’s no surprise to me, but now I’ve come to notice
The scarcity among them of a hue.

The rabbits in my area are always brown all over.
For brown ones on the screen, I have to think.
The bulk of them in fiction come in purely white or blue-gray.
The brown are even fewer than the pink!

I’d like to ask cartoonists why they shy away from brownness.
It looks a little racist to my eyes.
(I’m told that black is even more abundant in the real buns,
But using less black ink might just be wise.)

It’s possible that viewers rarely welcome brown in palettes.
The fashion world makes little use of that.
It also doesn’t work so well for contrast with the backgrounds,
Like pulling rabbits from a black top hat.

Two widely known exceptions are the TV adaptations
Of Richard Adams’ book, which you may guess.
Regardless, I would like some more brown rabbits in my fiction,
If only to acknowledge their success.