See the frantic bird once trapped between the window and the blinds

Flapping furiously in a state of anxious nausea

He widens his beak, panting, pausing to comprehend the glass

Villainless, he trapped himself; victimless, the malcontented

 

Praising folly for the virtue of this lone afflicted one

He points toward avarice as the example of accolades

Primal fury igniting the passion of righteous battle

Against the world does he rage, this plight of destiny or fate

 

“I watch clouds spin in adoration of undefeated whim

I, the vessel of mad genius, spill words at finite reason

Time passes outside my tempered glass as I watch knowingly

Someone has trapped me in this cage, I must shout that I exist!

 

It is me. And the blinds boisterously bustle behind me

But here still I will prove my tenacious ingenuity

I clamor, I’m vigilant, decidedly the indigent

With tousled feathers I pace steady on the gray marble sill

 

My cause is myself; no one could possibly know my struggle

Who will vindicate me? I, captain of my captivity!

Though I have gone into the cage, yet I will prove myself out

I wait for the world beyond the glass to see my victory

 

Hear my forlorn story, ascension from asceticism

Bound in this temple of someone else’s mockery of me

Know that my squawk is heard and know that I alone have the key

Woe, the standard of my conquering cry, as I peck the glass

 

I will soar upon the aggression of my own mighty wings

Faultless, I plow headlong again and again into the glass

How noble, how stalwart, the gradient of those who earn truth

It rises as they rise, proving their struggle was always theirs

 

The moment comes as the man with the contentious demeanor

Unwittingly pushes on the blinds, suddenly I am free!

I’ve conquered all! Now in flight before the foe that sought my harm

That strange place beyond the glass now will hear my triumphant song.”