Better Now With Me

I wrote a book of beautiful words,

I asked for him to read them.

Instead, he handed it back to me and asked,

"Why won't you read them yourself?"

I couldn't tell him then,

I couldn't tell him now,

That I have no voice to speak with.

The one I use is not my own,

It's one I made by copying the songs of the other birds.

I sat in my cage and listened,

To every note and rhyme,

But when it was my turn to sing,

Mechanical noise was all I found.

The other birds didn't like it.

They chased me away from their nests.

They chased me away from their branches.

I resigned to stay in my cage,

Playing with Paper and Pen instead.

The rules had been set in stone a long, long time ago.

They change only gradually,

I found that made them easy to learn.

I picked it up faster than most birds,

During all the silent years in the cage.

In that time I filled that book,

With all those beautiful words.

The cage, however, started growing small.

I had to leave and stretch my wings.

I had to go out among the birds.

It would be no problem,

As long as I never said a word.

I kept my book close by my side,

Filling it with lines and lines.

One day it was full of beautiful words,

I could fit not one more.

That was when I came across some birds,

Who knew the game of Paper and Pen.

They all filled books with words,

As beautiful as mine.

I dared to share my words with them,

I opened up my book and offered it for them to read.

"Why don't you sing these words you've written?"

Was what I heard instead.

They didn't read their words,

They sang them in vibrant choruses,

I could never hope to match.

They chased me away from them,

Back to that ill-fitting cage.

The only way to make some room,

Was to burn my book of words.

I sat alone and watched the other birds,

For years in total silence.

Life for me was meant to be like this,

Time was meant to fly away.

All the while I was growing against the cage walls,

Until they shattered.

The sound frightened the other birds,

But I didn't care an ounce.

On a whim I copied the sound with my vulgar voice,

I found it pleasing to my ears.

The other birds hated it,

And tried to drive me away again.

There was no cage to run to,

Fleeing wasn't an option.

I chased them back,

I made my own space in the tree.

I made my booming caws and cracks,

My purring engine hums.

I began to notice some other birds,

Who I had never seen before in the tree.

They all made sour notes like me.

One by one they arrived,

They started to sing with me.

The sound was as beautiful as anything I'd heard before,

Better now with me.