my wild beautiful bird

i put her in a gilded cage
so from my favorite seat to muse
admiring her brilliant color

i expected her to sing

instead she stared at a painting
of hills and trees and birds in the wild
as her feathers drooped to fade

her silence was an eerie sound

i moved her by a window
where the morning sunlight streams
bringing the joy of day and seasons

i expected her to sing

silently she stared into the distant sky
far beyond change and light and time
deep into a purple midnight blue

her melancholy permeated my dreams

weeping in the dark, i was
in sleepwalk wandering aimless
empty, from room to room

i expected to sing

but transported in magical arms of Morpheus
one morning i found myself by an open window
she was sitting on the sill

her silence was an eerie sound

she looked at me with gratitude
then swiftly away she flew
easy landing in a nearby tree

wrestling with noise she battled

flitting lithely from limb to limb
as from silence to sonance she sorted sound
until wondrous song filled the wind

silence was an eerie sound

stretching and mighty lifting high
i saw my wild beautiful bird
disappearing in the distant sky