Written by Melissa Lemay
Much has been written
about why the caged bird
sings;
but poetry about the person
looking at the bird
in the cage
is much more obscure.
The
agony
of watching
as a bird who can’t fly
further
than 40 square feet*
is restrained
from the wind,
the sea,
touch,
salt
of the earth—
they can’t kiss,
they can dance,
but only
in their cage—
from
the sun,
the grass
on the lawns,
and only
fed by hand
out of trays is
immense. It
encompasses
one’s being and
pulls your heart
on
a string
right into that cage
with them—
that pathetic little bird,
whose sole purpose in life
was to fly,
eat insects,
perhaps pollinate
flowers
and
move seed.
And now—
they are imprisoned,
and they
didn’t
even kill
any other birds.
*the minimum square footage required by statute in certain states for a prison cell
Text © Melissa Lemay
Edge of Humanity Magazine’s
FREE Projects & Other Services
To Promote Works From Artists,
Photographers, Poets & Writers
PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK, SHORT STORIES & MUSIC Recommendations
FREE Platform For Artists NO MIDDLEMAN ART GALLERY
Open Submissions for Writers & Poets
Edge of Humanity Magazine is an independent nondiscriminatory platform that has no religious, political, financial, or social affiliations.
We are committed to publishing the human condition, the raw diverse global entanglement, with total impartiality.
Support This Small Independent Magazine
Please
Follow Edge of Humanity Magazine
Email Subscriptions
WordPress Bloggers
Follow Edge of Humanity Magazine on WordPress.com
Not on WordPress?
Don’t Forget to add
to your reader or bookmarks
Thank you!
Better to live as that bird, trapped inside its own, ignorant, bliss of not being free, that to be on the outside, looking into that cage, seeing how the bird, keeps on, flapping those wings, and, can’t escape…