Snip Snip (2023)

 You hold your hand on the cage door.

Slowly you turn the handle.

My heart beats faster for the freedom that is close.

Anticipation coursing through my veins.

Then you stop before the door is fully open.

You let go of the handle, 

You walk towards me with a smile.

With the intent of giving me a welcoming hug.

I relish in this feeling of embrace from you.

But then it was far too late.

As I hear a sickening sound go,

Snip snip.

At first confusion is what I feel.

Not understanding what was happening.

Then I look around.

What lays before me are feathers from my wings.

My flight feathers to be exact.

The ones I worked so hard to grow.

The ones needed for me to go.

To finally fly towards our freedom together. 

“Why!” I screamed.

“Why did you do this to me?”

“I trusted you!”

“You promised our freedom!”

You looked at me with serious eyes.

Knowing full well the gravity of your choice.

Knowing what it could mean.

Knowing this could end it all.

“I’m sorry,” you said.

“I can’t go through with this with you”

“I have no reason to leave here”

“Why would I when I have everything I need?”

“Because staying here won’t let you grow,” I said.

“You have everything here but your freedom”

“As well as something else,”

“Us.”

“You said you didn’t want us to be apart,” I say.

“But now you don’t want to close the distance”

“Was it all a lie?”

“Were the promises you said empty words to entertain yourself?”

“No lies or empty words my dear,” you say.

“Why would I go with someone who yells and squawks at me to do things all the time?” 

“When everything has to be done by a deadline?”

“Not letting me be myself and go at my own pace?”

“The stress of it all has worn your feathers thin,” you said.

“Look how brittle they are.”

“You wouldn’t have lasted long.”

“You would have blamed me for this travesty.”

“Look at my feathers my love,” you say.

“They have not grown as all!”

“Instead they have fallen off,”

“From your constant distress.”

I stopped and look around,

At my own personal hell that I am in.

The one I wished to escape.

The one I was so close to leaving.

Saw my beautiful feathers that took years to grow.

From being a dull black,

To a shimmering radiate shine.

Lay lifeless before me.

All this work.

All this hope.

Gone.

Snipped to pieces.

“We are two different people my dear,” you said.

“We want different things.”

“We dream of different goals.”

“We are no longer aligned like we used to be.”

“This is for the good of me my dear” you say.

“For the good of you.”

“For the good of us.”

“For our future.”

Tears stream down my face.

Anguish and pain.

Sorrow and loss.

Betrayal and loneliness.

Feelings that I feel all at once.

Churning inside.

Like a raging hurricane. 

I have no words to say.

I sit here in pain.

Wondering what to do next.

As you walk away,

And left me alone in this cage.