Page 2 - Horizon Elementary Literary Submissions 2022

Flying Bird in a Little Cage
The minute I became a girl, I was there for the world to see.
And while one world I lived in showed only love for me, The next one subjected me to their depraved lunacy. Before, I was put onto a stage.
I smiled, spun, and laughed and loved; there, I always sang.
Now I sit here, hungry, only left to age:
Singing and swinging by myself, a flying bird in a little cage.
When I was only a small child,
my mind was a horizon, colorful and wild.
Never aware and always naive
to the sick, sad world that would await me.
A world that would call me by a name, I never asked to be called
A world uncaring to my feelings, even as I bawled
A world and a game so savage, yet a game I decided to play
A game I should’ve known could never be won, yet I decided to say okay When you are a bird stuck in a cage
And the children prod and poke at you,
You must stay graceful and ladylike.
Cheyenne M. Incarnate Word Academy Mrs. Traci Borden Eighth Grade