Caged

 

In her poem ‘The Caged Bird,’ Maya Angelou says, ‘the caged bird sings, of things unknown, but hoped for still,’ in a vivid description of the life of this poor bird. The poem is somber, her song solemn and everyone just wants to free her.

That was my initial reaction too. I, however, started seeing it differently, and please walk with me here. Yes it feels right to free the bird, but the cage is all she's known, where to shall she go?

In literature class we read a book of a girl whose dad was so violent that all she ever wanted was to run away. Running away she did, but home is all she knew. And even though she was able to escape the violence of her father, the violence of the world beckoned. To whom would she run? It is the proverbial rock and a hard place scenario. Back she cannot go and ahead lays no hope.

Where does she go? Where would you?

I have come to embrace a resigned attitude to the fate that befalls mankind. I am not saying that there is no hope at all but the risk is just too big. Picture this, we live in a third world country and unemployment is the order of the day, you get a job but the terms are very harsh, do you persevere while still holding it or quit and remain jobless? You know the toll taking the job will have on you but then again you know the darkness that comes with unemployment. Do you quit and hope for better as you wallow in unemployment with hopes of a job that will never come or do you just keep at it? Do you free the bird or just let it stay caged?

Maybe I, too, am thinking from a cage and needs freeing or maybe I am right and that is how the world works. As you think about it, here is a verse from the poem:

 

‘But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.’