You can’t cage a
Bird that wishes to
Fly first you’ll break
Its heart then you’ll
Crush its spirit and
Finally it’ll stop singing
Every time that door
Opens it’ll try to
Flee until at last
It doesn’t becoming far
Less than what it
Was to both you
And mostly to it
Back when I
Was seventeen life
Was simpler love
Purer music better
Life was uncluttered
Because it was
Still ahead out
There around the
Next curve beyond
The next hill
And I shot
For it and
Always found it
Where I thought
That it was
Back when I
Was still seventeen
Oh how I
Wish that we
All were more
Like snowflakes and
Leaves and flowers
Admired for their
Uniqueness and the
Joy that brings
But instead we’re
Human constantly forcing
Our round selves
Into square holes
If the world
Celebrated its roundness
Then it wouldn’t
Need square holes
Who made square
Holes anyway I’ll
Tell you a
Bunch of squares
I have finally
Understood my own
Sadness on the
Pursuit of happiness
I have forgotten myself
So concerned about
Others I lost
Track of me
Like setting
A falcon free
Of tether and
Hood I myself
Flew free and
Disappeared like a
Winged dot on
The horizon yet
Knowing at some
Point I’d return
To me of which
I now have
Back to roost
I no longer
Want others I
Simply want me
This is not
Selfish it is
However now Grand
When you take
A stick to
A dog and
Beat the bark
Out of him
Does he not
Yet still bite
When you beat
People down with
Meanness and hatred
Do they still
Not love you
Can’t beat out
Of anything what
It truly is
Scare it yes
Scar it no
We come back
We always do
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 