Like Bird Forms Poem by Francisco R. Albano

Like bird forms
Are my people
Are caged
In time and place
Stilled
Are parables
Of chains
Violate comfort
Of blindness
Laughter and tears
We start as one
With them
Wing out
Of the labyrinth
Of five centuries
More
Than an idea
But tyrannical like
Eternity
Rejecting
All the flesh
All the blood
Of stubborn memory
Shaming
Art even
Else
We’re no different
Dull experiments
Of time and color
Where we are
Not free
To struggle
To contain
The seven days
Outside the rest
Of created light
We’ve only inherited
Bird forms
Just begin
Grace for your eyes
Just begin