deepundergroundpoetry.com

The Bird Who Loved Her Cage

purity is a bird
one who sings into your soul
and entrances those who allow it to
but when the song takes hold of the keeper of birds
her notes bend out of tune
and so begins the days of confinement
in a tiny cage
with a rusty perch

the bird would stare at blackened lines
soon they melted into one
and the songs were kept inside those bars
the perch was rough, dusty, and sharp
after awhile, it grew into her talons
and the stick became a scarlet letter
from which the small bird hung

when she flapped her delicate wings
they brushed the sides of her newfound life
it hurt when they would knock her down
but it hurt more when the birdkeeper left and ignored her sound
so she continued in reluctance
until the wings broke wrong
and grew back malformed

as the bird began to love her cage
she molted for the first time
soft tufts of downy white
snowed down onto the wiry floor
when the keeper saw those feathers
she smiled and left them there
and when the tortured bird grew back her coat
it was an ashy color
but there below
remnants of who she was before

the bird who loved her cage
aged with her favorite captor
their bond as strong as the iron that kept her
a love built there, to last forever
her songs buried beneath beautiful feathers

one early dawn, before the sun
a song of hers was uncovered
and the cage was destroyed, the perch burned in the fire of justice
and there she sat, flightless and weak
nobody to belong to, she let out a scream
and prayed the bird keeper would see

a bird that loves her cage, never flies the same
she never sings a song of love
her purpose is crushed, like those fragile feathers
but when she knows her cage is lost
she buries the past, and finds a second
another place to build her nest
knowing her bird keeper�s soaring in the sky

free to repeat it all again