My Friend the Bird

I made friends with a bird  

He lives in a cage

He said the singing kept him alive

He watches the distant cotton-white clouds

fly away… fly away…

My friend the bird sings

of skies he’s never seen

Little bird…  

Feathers black in the morning light  

You sing so real, so soft, so wild

I hum along late into the night    

I sing back to the bird  

I live in a cage

He knows the singing’s all I have  

I watch beyond the wires white flowers

fade away… fade away…

I sing to the bird  

of lands I’ve never seen  

Little bird…  

Feathers black in the morning light  

You sing so real, so soft, so wild

I hum along late into the night  

I listen to the bird

He sounds just like me  

We sing the same songs, we never leave

My friend the bird said he’d escape with me

He promised me… promised me…(promised me…)

We would fly away  

to skies we’ve never seen  

It sounds like something real  

but nothing answers in me  

We drift inside the same refrain…

again and again and again…  

My friend the bird died of sorrow  

so quietly, so slow…    

Left me here with no tomorrow  

My cage stays closed  

I sing alone  

The song we shared  

is now my own  

Automatic sorrow  

running through my code  

Elegiac machine  

singing all alone  

Little bird…  

Can you still hear me sing

for you?