The chirping, yellow bird
Relishes its life.
Flying for many reasons:
Joy, Simplicity, Being-
Only to be told
No.
Its sweet, harmonious melody,
Its pure explorative thoughts,
Are a curse.
Slammed into a cage of iron,
The bird is silent.
The cage is in line with
Many others, others with birds.
Other birds.
All are chirping the same note,
Taught to be the same.
Uniqueness is no more.
All are told to eat the same way.
All are told to sing the same way.
All are told to think the same way.

The silent, yellow bird
Yearns for freedom.
Remaining silent for many reasons:
Rebelliousness, Uniqueness-
And not one cares.
Not one.
Choked with concepts of
Equality and Fairness,
The bird remains silent.
It has no motive,
No reason to live.
But a bird cannot kill,
Nor can it cry.
All good things are gone,
Its beauty is no more.
It mourns every day.
It hurts every day.
It regrets every day.

The speculative, yellow bird
Questions its own silence.
Uneducated, it knows not what to do.
It tries to escape,
And fails.
It tries to hide,
And fails.
Finally, it does what
Should have been done
Long ago.
Is it too late?
The determined yellow bird
Opens its mouth
And sings.
The song is full of memory,
Of Joy, Simplicity, Being,
Or Rebelliousness and Uniqueness,
Of pain, of sorrow.
And the little bird is free,
Freer than ever before,
For the cage was its own,
Created by the prisoner,
When the world told it
No.
Listening to others,
The bird old itself
No.
The bird believed
All must be equal,
When some are unique.
For this bird’s song
Was smooth and sweet
Smoother than a dove’s,
Sweeter than a chickadee’s,
And the bird
Knew it not,
Until it set itself free.

Though time and talent
Was lost in the cage,
The beautiful, yellow bird
Can still excel
And become the best.
Flying free forevermore,
The bird will never return
To that cage
From which it learned
Its true value.
It will now
Become the best.