Caged Canary

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The sounds of a sweet bird; lively, buoyant, and free,

The sounds of a bitter bird; bleak, melancholy, and confined.

One bird smiles and flies to grand heights, touching the warm sun with gentle glides,

One bird frowns and perches to lower her eyes, feeling the cool fluorescent light with once clipped wings.

 

Once on a cloudy summer's day, the window by the bitter bird's cage was swung out,

Letting in the gentle breeze and swift evening rays.

The sweet bird, landed on the sill to peer at the gray cage and bitter bird,

But the bitter bird had seen the sweet bird out of the corner of her lowered eyes.

Silence— No sound nor song these birds made to greet or know one another.

 

The tanned, black and brown bird hopped close to the gray cage,

The yellow bird finally looked to meet the eyes of the sweet bird.

One thought this of the other— "How mournful her song must be..."

While the other thought— "How gay her song must be..."

 

The bitter bird looked at the latch of her cage, the eyes of the sweet bird followed.

They knew what they were looking at and it was easy to say what had to be done.

With swift motions, the sweet bird lifted the old loose latch, letting the door swing open.

 

Sparrow, the sweet bird, flew to the sky with hopes her freed companion would follow suit,

Canary, the bitter bird, perched at the doorway of her opened cage, her eyes to the sky for the first time.

However that's when she knew, that she had forgotten the gift that mother nature gave to her.

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