Free as a bird
they say
To spread those wings and glide atop
the world’s walls

But aren’t they, too, caged by our fear,
wings beating to the rhythms of war below,
atonal music thundering ever louder,
drowning the notes they struggle to recall
and clinging anxiously to the harmonies of long ago

Land of liberty,
free as a bird we move about,
thinking that we know what we have lost
Flocking with the crowd from home to home,
stopping only to pick at the grass
for any semblance of meaningful sustenance
that our souls so desperately crave