It’s safe here but there’s nothing left to learn
The walls bare as the furniture, the rug still unclean
My mirror only speaks when it’s looking back at me
Capturing each tremble as I scramble to find
The key to these bars sits attached to the lock outside
The one you felt fit to force this my home
That is too heavy for my small talons to ever take hold

My wings may as well be tethered with string
As was my beak stuck to the rings when I was found flailing by the sea
Clearer now, it was not companionship you did seek
But control,
Over one even more vulnerable
Over me

All through the night through one steady eye
You sat perched on your bed just like I to mine
An open door led to a fire escape
But the candle burning beside is not yet threatening
Reading back the words you wrote on the road
I wonder if that’s the evergreen I smell coming off your unwashed clothes

The story unfinished, you close it graciously
Its pages as brittle as the falling autumn leaves
Not unlike the sound of my cage after you drizzle some seeds
Fitting its roof with a worn white sheet
It may still be safe here but the sky, I cannot see