I used to be such a weird kid
Talking to the birds like they could hear
Sitting crisscrossed in the dessert soil
Under the trees that I held dear.
Magnanimous to their stories
Their dramas imploded nearby truth
And flapping wings entranced my sight
Till I felt that I could fly right off my roof
But little girls were made for dresses
And birds were kept outside
And little bird girls distorted nature
With separation of their pride.
“Are you the bird girl that we’ve heard about?”
They would chirp at me and jeer
And I’d say “no, you have it wrong
Birds mean nothing to me I fear.”
So I wonder if they ever noticed
When their friend stopped coming round
Became solemn eyes in a window
Watched their trees get taken down.
But then I saw a stubborn finch
As it cursed the sky it rode
And realized that I didn’t care
If I betrayed the social code
Barefoot strides across the soil
To where once I would have played
And cried out pleading tonal calls
That I know I should have stayed
The sun hit harder in the absence of trees.
And the silence only grew
The lone finch promptly flew away
As I once knew how to do.