For several long years,
A lonely speckled brown bird had been captured
From her home among the thorny shrubs
And prickly pear, her nest
In the barbed cholla cactus,
And kept as a prisoner locked up
In a metal cage and only being given
A minuscule amount of sustenance.
Sometimes she went a few days without
A thing at all.
Many times she went hungry for food
And kind companionship,
For her life behind bars was very dismal
That she even longed, many times,
For a quick death for then at least
She'd be free.
Oh! If only!
If only!
If only she could find a way to flee..........
For she really was a brave little thing!
Indeed, she did believe that one day soon
She would be freed.
Not long after, her cage had been left open,
And so she had tried to
Escape but only to have the metal bars
Roughly shut before her.
And, all hope was gone.
Every day since then she's died
A little bit more and more with each
Passing day.
Oh, it was never in any outward way,
But instead, it was done on the inside of her,
In her heart and it greatly wounded her spirit,
Slowly, just like a flower that withers away
Under the sun's scorching ray,
So she too slipped quietly away...........
Slowly,
Slowly,
So slowly and feeling so alone and lowly.
For she was too weak and hadn't much strength
For even a beetle nor ant.
She now welcomed death,
"Please! Come for me!"
Words spoken in desperation.
Words she would not recant.
And, with a torn and broken wing
That had been injured by her cruel
Imprisonment, she wasn't able to fly.
One day during the eighth month of August,
A severe thunderstorm struck,
Roiling across the vast dry desert
Landscape with flashes of bright lightening
And high tempestuous winds
That caused a cloud of dust
Along with a heavy downpour of raindrops.
This summertime storm continued raging,
Unmercifully and relentlessly,
For many, many hours.
And she was placed outside, alone
And frightened, amidst this catastrophe,
When along came a strong gust of wind
Swirling around her, knocking the cage
To the hard ground where the bars crashed open
Upon the rocks.
She could smell the cool damp air.
She could feel the warm wind ruffle her feathers
As the raindrops fell,
Pitter-patter, from the darkened sky,
Illuminated only by the bright flashes
Of lightening.
She heard the thunder and she was greatly
Frightened, but she knew that this was her last
Chance to escape the bars of her prison
And be free, forever and ever.
FOREVER.
She flew.
She flew as far and high and fast as her
Broken wings would let her go,
Up, up, up into the darkened stormy sky,
Where the thunder still roared just
As loudly and the lightening flashed
Just as brightly,
She flew.
She flew right on through the August's storm
And she found..........
FREEDOM.
At last.
Oh! How she did fly so fast and so high!
How she did it she didn't know,
For she had always been just another bird
That never did know how to fly.
But, now.........
Look at her go!
Up, up, up she goes, all the way on to
The shores of Mexico!
