I Was A Little Bird...

I was a little bird that seemed to please everyone with its song,

when suddenly I fell from my perch.

My voice changed, a truer but harsher note falling on ears

sung awake only recently.

Reality changed down on the ground, subversives, guerrillas,

phantoms from all the operas were close and far.

To sing or not to sing. I wasn't sure if I praised the angels,

the same sounds would signal a response from the depths.

So I sang on alternate days - whisper songs of love,

but their lack of volume could be perceived by ears

finely tuned for multiple waves of reception simultaneously.

Songs that wept, that cried,

gasps of the dying mingled with prayers

ascending in the form of roses passed one by one to someone

by a white robed man on a ladder.

When you fell, bird, you lost much of the consciousness you had.

Now you are susceptible to threats, guns, avarice;

And war is played like a game, coercive, addictive, repressive.

But this too, bird, is where life is lived.

Out of this chaos comes meaning, out of this park our hope.

Out of this life honesty hones the double-edged sword.

We have played games with the corporations for years.

For more years the corporations have played games with us.

Sing your song of love little bird in your element,

the sweet lullabies that we long to hear.

Once asleep we can't say what we saw

or that we heard any cries at all.

I flew to my perch to find it gone and wonder sent me on my way South.

A Quetzal greeted me.

"My problems?", she inquired. "Pues si, mi hermana."

"A uno de nosotros..." perched very high in

nature's paradise... I observed.

But your rivers are red and the people lie still.

Is there a monopoly on quieting nature?

Our Mother's forests have been invaded by monstrous war birds

emitting harsh killer songs

that rip huge pieces of flesh from their victims.

Then the poet said, "Hey! Kindly light, do you know what's going on?"

To which the U.S. Department of State replied, "We know, we know."

They are us and we are they, the victims.