Inside
the cage, the blackbird has no yellower a beak
than
outside. The bird shrinks into a corner,
poor
thing, and seems shy,
although
it is the fault of who placed it there
knowing
a blackbird does not fall from the sky.
There
are birds like that, birds people
place
in a cage, despite their yellow beak.
They
do not sing. Do not fly. Do not speak.
They
are birds gone blind
from
the silence of oracles and dumb
from
the lucidity of prophets.
Completely
by chance, I opened
the
cage. And the bird just sat there, not going in
not
going out.
