Freedom in a cage

 A poem. 

and there she stood, standing 

behind those glass walls

with her face pressed against it

as she stared at the trapped birds 

locked behind cages in the pet shop

there was a myriad emotions in her heart 

as she watched those helpless creatures

 beating against their cages, struggling to

 break free of the bars that held them in.

oh how similar she felt to them now,

 perhaps she grew an affinity to

 those birds in a span of seconds.

the only difference, she thought,

 was that their cages are 

conspicuous

but hers? invisible

they still hade hope, 

unlike her who gave in to the

 confines of her bars a long time ago.

something odd caught her eye,

at the corner of the cage was

a lonely gray dove. it took to the

 cover of the shadows unlike

 it's inmates flying restlessly 

around the cage.

wings folded tight against its

 body as its head hung low

 bearing the weight

of its captivity. 

something in her ached seeing the

hollowness the dove displayed.

perhaps she felt like staring at another

part of her through the mirror

why did you stop trying? she 

asked the dove, inside her head

the dove lifted its head and seem

 to look straight at her,

 its eyes were just voids, empty...

just like hers...

she hated seeing that, it hurt her in a way

 she thought it wouldn't,

something in her stirred.

aimlessly, she stood there,

 looking down at the crumpled 

20 dollar note in her hands

it was all she had saved

 for her lifetime

yet, looking at the dove, she 

wondered if it was really worth

 living with the shadow of her bars 

looming around her head.

she pushed open the door and went 

to the counter. with fumbling hands, 

she pushed the 20 dollar bill into the hands

 of the recipient, pointing at the lonely dove,

she stammered "her ...I need her"

she took the cage outside the shop

 and freed the dove, holding it in her hands, 

and looked at it questioningly.

its resigned eyes met hers as they 

both stared at each other 

for a few quiet moments

for the dove who never knew the

 taste of freedom, now the world has

 become an even bigger cage 

in which it's trapped in, 

and she has become its 

captor as she set the dove

 free upon the world

sad realisation struck her hard

 as she understood that the dove

 would never knew what it's like

 to glide across the sky and 

feel the air snagging at her feathers

finally she set the dove 

on the ground 

and whispered 

"go...go away now. Don't come back"

 she turned on her heel and ran away

 from the dove, the shop, her pain

she ran untill her feet hurt 

and her heart could no longer 

ignore the pain.

a few heartbeats later

a slight dove appeared

 before her eyes

it had trailed her steps all the while

and had returned to her new captor

slowly she wiped her tears 

and picked the dove up 

and held it close to her chest

she wondered if she had truly

 freed the dove or stupidly 

thrust it into a painful future, 

all the while the gray dove 

stayed in her hold, 

unmoving like a statue

"what is the meaning of life? 

yours and mine?"

she asked the dove but

answered her herself

"to seek freedom behind our bars 

even when the cage in wide open" 

she concluded

the dove silently shook its head

either it confirmed or denied,

 she didn't know, but she 

was content

to hold her in her hands and

 just get lost in her thoughts 

as she wondered why she 

couldn't have chosen a dove 

which longed to be free

Poem by 

iniya prakasha