My coat is all tattered and worn to shreds My whiskers have wondered away I've picked up some dirt is some flower beds I think that it's in there to stay. But the light in your eyes shows a needle and thread And the wonder that scrubs me so clean, I see in their mirror I'm beautiful I pose, and I laugh and I preen My bottom's as stout as it's always been And maybe a little bit more. I never believed it was good for much Expect keeping my ears off the floor But then when you take me as toss me high I fly like the fleetest gazelle, And the joy my dusty heart takes in your touch Is more than a rabbit can tell. My eyes are just buttons of two-penny glass They're either too brown or too green. There's one of them might not stay on too much longer And plenty they've both never seen. But they see their way clear to a home in your heart I live in the love that you feel And there of all places, a place of my own Where a Velveteen Rabbit is real.