December 2007

As my 11-year old daughter and I sat in the midst of the beautiful nature of St. Lucia, South Africa, we watched as the abundant birdlife around us gave us such pleasure. Discussing how cruel it was to keep a bird in a cage, we decided to write a poem. Now, we are not poets by any means but we did what we always do – we each created a line which would feed off the previous line. This is how it went –

CANARY

Canary, Canary, your heart so wary
Your lovely owner – mean and scary
You sit in a cage, filled with rage
All through the day, you perch and pray

You’re expected to sing your beautiful song
And this you do, all day long
But you do so not because you’re told
Instead, it’s been programmed into your mould

If only they’d realise how you wish to be free
To fly where you want
And to rest in a tree

Imagine the news if a child was captured
Thrown in a cell, while you sit enraptured
Waiting to hear the child tell a story
Oh surely, the headlines would be gory

Think twice before placing a bird in jail
It’s better to have a dog that wags it’s tail