2023

   I invited a Canary

Inside of my home

  With an open door

She flew in 

   And there she stayed

Not even realizing that she was now

   Caged

And while she was in there

   She would sing

Beautiful songs of love for me

 We’d eat our dinner together

And she’d leave the dishes 

   For me to do

And then

  One day

We got into a fight

  And from then on

Her songs of love

   Tortured me

Her presence in my home became chaos 

   It was a storm

With no sun on the forecast

  She brought in her pet Golden Retriever 

To live with us

She caught him while he was running on the side of the street one dark night. 

He was always on a short leash with her

  And to me 

He seemed like

   A little boy

Who’d never have the strength 

  To free himself

But I hoped he’d be smart enough

  To see his cage

Then, one day

   A meteor came

And smashed through our roof

A giant hole was left where it busted through

  And I hoped

That my caged Canary

  Would find a way out of my house

But she stayed

  And kept singing her songs of torture to me

I couldn’t sleep

 So I drank booze

Smoked weed

 And munched on shrooms 

After six months

  I had enough

I looked up at the hole

   Blew out some smoke

Killed a drink

  And climbed

I scaled my walls like spiderman 

Desperately trying to make my great escape

   But I continued to fall off the walls

And onto my face

Her singing turned into laughter 

   As she watched me try to leave my cage

I realized that I was too weak to make the climb out

  So I compiled all of my pain

And all of the chaos 

And all my ideas about love

  And grew bigger 

Stronger

  Older 

And with one big jump

  I leapt out of the hole in the roof

I left my cage forever

  But I left a little yellow Canary

And her Golden Retriever boy

  Behind forever 

. . . 

Since then, 

   I’ve made a new life

One full of peace

  And music

And my dog

 And books

  And friends

And a new home

  With more money

And more strength 

I was 

   Reborn into a different person

And I know now that I’ll never cage a bird ever again. 

If she wants to fly away

  I’ll watch her go.

CH 12/23/23