By: Victoria DiMartino
i know why the caged bird sings,
full of promise and hope,
her feathers slowly and painfully plucked out of her one by one
she stands naked in front of the world
her pain reads like a newspaper headline
bold and overlooked
she sings a warbled and broken tune hoping that someone will open the cage and she can be set free
her feathers grow back slowly and without her permission,
her pain still exists but she hasn’t earned the right to be strong again
she hasn’t overcome anything yet
when she sings her tune with her coat fully grown back
she screams so loud and painfully, passerby’s wonder why something so beautiful could be horrible inside
she screams out to the world because she wants them to realize she’s not fully healed
no
she’s broken and raw
and just because her outside is whole
she is ripped up inside and wants the world to notice and tend to her invisible wounds
i know why the caged bird sings because i am the caged bird
trapped by the skinny bars, fully covered and no longer raw
but on the inside i am a plucked bird ready for the world to eat
as if they haven’t eaten enough of me already.