The caged bird sings with lungs of despair,
but the free bird roams, chanting anywhere.
I've tried squeezing through these iron bars,
but hope was deployed beneath hidden scars.

A few feathers unplucked hide my deflated breast
as I cower down, perched on my only branch.
A mockingbird mimed from a broken soul,
a ring that doesn't shine may as well be coal.