Caged Bird

I felt something tickle my nose. I looked up and realized that a feather had brushed past my face. I reached to grab it but it floated away due to the breeze created by my hand. I slowly went after it and held it. I stopped walking to examine it, feeling my aching feet soothe a bit. What bird could have such a beautiful feather?

“Keep moving” ordered the man in front of me.

I nodded and continued walking without looking at him. My freedom had long been gone and my will was barely intact. I only needed to follow the orders of this person.

“Get rid of that dirty feather. You don’t know where it’s been” Seth whispered from behind.

I stared at the feather in my hand, feeling it’s softness in my palm. I really didn’t know where it had been. Where could one go?

“The birds are free” I muttered. “They go wherever they want”.

“Some live under a blue sky while others are caged. There is not freedom within a cage” Seth sighed.

“Perhaps the caged bird is actually free? The outside world is evil and cruel. It would be free of all of that.”

“A caged bird knows not of the good of the world nor the bad. It will forever think that the outside world is a beautiful place, where it can fly to its heart’s content. Unless someone sets it free, it will wonder for eternity. But if there is fear, someone may open the cage but it won’t leave”.

I turned around to grab Seth’s arm and pulled him back. He stared at me with a look of surprise. I glanced back to see if the man in front of me had noticed that we had stopped following him. He had stopped to admire something and had his back turned to us.

“Let’s escape, shall we?” I whispered.

“What?”

“Let’s not play the part of the caged bird! Let’s discover what we would have missed had we no courage to leave our cage. Let’s be free!”

“You got this idea simply because of a feather?”

“No, I got this idea because it returned my will to keep on fighting for freedom. This world is so big compared to us. The birds are smaller, yet they have traveled much farther. A slave will be forever shackled as we are now. Are you happy with that future?”

He broke the rusted chains around our feet, using all his strength and a great deal of grunting. I felt his warm hand slip into mine and was pulled forward into a run in the opposite direction of the man.

“Let’s go then, little one!” Seth grinned as we ran.

The sound of the man shouting was drowned out by the sound of my heartbeat and out footsteps. I smiled as I felt the feather escape through the gap of my fingers. There was no need for it anymore. I would find lots more outside this cage.



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