Now the cage hangs empty.

The constant twitter is gone.

Never  again will we listen to

her unrelenting song.

Content in her confinement,

she longed at times to be free.

She was kept as adornment

and bred for simplicity.

Over years she’d been neglected;

the gift of flight refused.

Little by little as decades passed,

she seemed to lose her muse.

I assume she needed freedom

to find her destination.

Her growth, in fact, was stunted.

And with it, her inspiration.

Now, the cage is empty.

The frightened sparrow is free

“Why on earth would she leave?”

was the question posed to me.

I admit I know the answer.

I inherited her style.

She needed some attention

and to fly once in a while.

Replacing freedom with neglect

only creates rage.

And all that remains eventually

is a quiet, empty cage.