Songbird

I once heard a bird sing
Proud and eloquent
Telling tales of it's many flights
To wisdom

I once heard a bird sing
Of freedom and strength
Through bars physically replaced
With a mental stronghold ever more present
Upon the songs of a lost flock
Left to the skies with no discernible path
To follow
Intrinsically
So that success
Despite those ever-present
Meticulously placed obstacles
Would forever be branded upon their generations.

I once heard a bird sing
And it sounded as if she sang to me
My history
Our future
Together beneath those joyful skies
I forget all to often possible
Because all I can witness from my perch
Are clouds
Weighted with the tears of my ancestors ashamed
Equality's march seemed to have ended
No sooner than it took such great leaps forward;
And not by the hands of the keepers,
But by the wings of those
Who shunned their sense to fly
Beyond the clouds to that eternal blue
We are so bound to.

I once heard a bird sing
In it's final flight
A return to it 's creator
A legacy proud
As others joined in chorus;
Her work done here,
This is why she sang every morning
Despite the storms which came
Why she praised every day
Despite the caws of those other birds attempting to drown out her message
Why she lifted all you listened
Learned
Making sweeter such consolidated lives
Overburdened with the task of living
Over and beyond a blue
They somehow forgot existed.
©2014clarencecbess