If you try
To back-pedal
            l
          l
        i
     h
   p
U
All you will do
Is c  a  h the bike
      r  s

If a blue ribbon is first place,
What does second place get?
Not the slight pity for third, nor the admiration of first-
So what do we,
Who are neither prized gems nor coal,
But simple rocks,get?
What do we in-betweens get,
But a shadow of a life?

It’s not the cage or the perch but the feeling of being a thing that’s so smart and so social, surrounded by - ironically- an infinite misunderstanding
From beings who think that they know you
It’s novel to speak but not to be heard,
to have wings but not fly,
to be smart but not think,
to have the beak and the claws
but only if they’ve been dulled to a reasonable human comfort-
the saddest thing about being a parrot is to be loved only when you’re restrained, and desired/admired only until you are had.


God forbid she ever bites

I know they look like sunrises and sunsets, but I was painting you.
When I painted all the rivers that lead to the oceans, and the glorious starry nights, and the flowers; the sublime orchids and the tender roses.
In the end
and from the beginning,
I was painting you.