Sweet Song
Updated: Sep 1, 2022
(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