Caged Birds in Nature

Around the forest

There are caged birds

In nature

Songs spring out

Beyond the trees

That echo back

And catch Katherine

As she marks her path

Coming upon one

In a rickety old wooden cage

She presses her fingers

Against the door

And searches the bird’s small eyes

To see if it knows

It’s trapped

The bird is a bluebird

Not agitated

Not fluttering

Barely making a sound

Compared to other birds

Katherine has noticed

As she’s moved

Through the woods

She looks around

To make sure there aren’t any rangers nearby

Nobody else on a hike

Or taking a stroll

Through the trees

Katherine knows

That she’s supposed to leave

Well enough alone

The birds like being in cages

That’s what everybody says

Letting them out

Will only confuse them

And that’s if they even leave at all

Sometimes you pass by a cage

With the door left open

Probably by a troublemaking teen

Or someone who has doubts about the cages

The way Katherine does

And yes, most of the time,

The bird will still be inside its cage

Disinterested in leaving

And the appropriate thing to do at that point

Is to close the door

And walk away quietly

So nobody stumbles upon you

And thinks you were the one

Who opened the door

In the first place

But every once in awhile

You’ll stumble upon an empty cage

And they are the rarest find

Something so startling

It’s not unusual, when they do appear,

To see five or six people

Standing around looking at it

Wondering what happened

How someone could be so cruel

As to send an innocent bird

Out into the world

Where it would surely die

The assumption is always

That the bird was forced out

Maybe the cage was even turned upside down

Until the bird had no choice

But to flee

Katherine doesn’t know

If she believes any of that

But as she looks at the bluebird

She reminds herself

That the birds in cages

Are well taken care of

That they’re fed

And given water

And that when it rains

Or snows

Or it gets too cold

They’re collected

By the rangers

And brought inside

The metal buildings

All over the woods

To provide them with shelter

There’s no reason

For them to be flying around

Without any supervision

But Katherine examines the bluebird

And wonders what could be going on

Inside its cage

She looks around again

And then places her hand

On the latch

Holding the door shut

If they really don’t want us opening the doors

Why don’t they just lock them?

There must be some obvious

Administrative reason

That Katherine just can’t think of

But it also makes her wonder

If maybe it’s a test

A test to see what kind of people

Are out there in the world

People who give in to temptation

To cause mischief

To harm something

That only wants to go in living

The only way it knows how

And if Katherine fails the test

Then what?

Who will know?

She undoes the latch

She opens the door just a bit

A centimeter, maybe less

The bluebird doesn’t move

Doesn’t chirp
For a second, Katherine wonders

If it isn’t a real bird at all

Or if, by being in a cage all this time,

It’s somehow turned from a bird

Into...something else

A doll maybe

Or a soft sort of statue

So Katherine opens the door

As far as it would go

And takes a few steps back

She stares at the cage

The bird’s left wing moves a bit

Or is Katherine imagining it

She should go

She shouldn’t be found here

Standing in front of an open cage

Waiting for a bird

To fly away

But she can’t go

She can’t move

She’s as still as the bluebird

Wondering if it notices the open the door

Or if it even understands

What an open door

Is