Sanctioned in a Birdcage
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with thanks to Jeff Burke [jburke@cnc.com]
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"Are you having a good time?" (dog barking in backbround)
"aren't you?"
"Uhh.."
"No?"
"I don't know"


Nails and grenades
But I'm under interrogation?
report through the hole 
left where the trees and halberds once stood
taller then eye contact
and years turn to dust left behind
with bark and other remnants of something that used to be alive
old forests like cemetaries 
with stumps for headstones
and the birds are left to be built over
a dated idea to be alive
like old electronics 
still used 
but archaic
a house to keep the insides in
to protect it from everything else
as if they're not even there
function lost
like not being able to find the handle to a broken coffee cup
brown stains around the lip that can't be cleaned
now useless in a wastebasket
identity #1 
where do the birds go?, where do the birds go?, where do the birds go?
where do the birds go?,

crushed on interstates
by the progress of a world 
of trucks and other developments
or kept inside 
protected by the serenity of a birdcage
unaware of the powers that their grandparents felt
the trees that they once lived in.. we now live in
the trees that they once lived in.. we now live in

One birdcage to another 
safty in a non-touchable place
to those wings that know freedom: 
a dirt home and their excuse not to die
bird sanctuary a refuge for wildlife 
where predators are controlled and
hunting is not allowed
no more fear
seeing only the serenity of being alive
unaware unaware unaware
unaware of any other aspects of the world they are isolated from
kept under the table like a villian in a scary movie
removed until the mystery is over
then crushed and defiled like crushed carnations in a diary
work from history
cancer from a different disease
as unaccepted as an empty lot in a growing subdivision
feel everything
and remove the beauty of simplicity
it's easy to be alive but being alive
really alive 
means freedom on a different level
high or low is irrelevant it's both
look at everything
to absorb everything
attempting to understand everything from carnations to dead birds