Sweet Song

(Inspired by Maya Angelou’s Caged Bird)

By Emmanuel Messele

The free bird is carried by

The late August breeze

Where sweet Summer rays

Shine through all the golden leaves

He stretches out his wing

To catch a ray

The free bird dares to claim the orange glow of the sun

With her golden embrace that stretches the horizon

And her song that whispers in the breeze

The free bird is like the song that’s carried downstream

It’s the tune that brings a smile to Dawn’s rosy lips

And the melody a mother teaches her child in the womb

But in the night’s youth

There’s a chill

And a the ring of melancholia

A bird caged with her

Wings clipped

And her head dipped

Into the darkness of her cage

The caged bird was trapped by the unknown

By the fear beyond

But even more by the certainty

Of her current reality

So she would play her song

That echoed

And lept on the back on the midnight breeze

The fearful trill of the caged bird

Like fire in the night

She set the world ablaze

She set fire to the sky

A sight to drown out golden rays

The Caged bird is like the song that vibrates the soul

It's the rhythm of centuries and no time at all

It's the song molded and shaped by a pain-stricken history

And the caged bird continues to sing despite it all

The caged bird sings

With a fiery soul

For horizons set ablaze

For sweet melodies to children

She sings with hopes of being the master of her fate

She sings for an answer in the night

She sings of dreams

Dreams of soaring in the breeze of August

Dreams that take her away from the night

The caged bird sings for freedom to ring