Birdcage Poem by M. A Heathcote

Give me a woman in a birdcage
Singing like a canary for a kingdom without chains
Singing for a deeper humanity
Flapping her wings like words flung granite stones.

Never mind me, sire; be my friend and lover.
I enjoy and endure your company and your love.
Like an imprisoned queen on her iron throne
But I've more than dead flowers buried in the loam.

Give me a woman in a birdcage.
Singing like a caged canary
And I swear I might even be happy
For momentary moments of madness

Because everything requires
Stripping back to their nuts and bolts
I have to wonder if I am easily intimidated.
Right from the start, for I hear the baying of wolves.

The pendulum can swing to either side
Of life and death, however it likes
But eventually, it will slow down to an exasperated crawl.
And this canary won't sing for its supper anymore.

The Ekphrastic Challenges
The Birdcage, by Harue Koga (Japan) 1924