Caged bird haiku
Caged bird sings so loud
to drown the plaintive music
of his breaking heart
Caged bird tanka
Why do you sing so?
I ask the bird in the cage.
The song is my life
My blood and my bones, he says,
Sweet tears fall before the dark.
Empty cage tanka
Songbird spreads his wings
Soars into a foreign sky.
No handful of grain
Will tempt him back to prison
Rather die free in the wind.


