Lizra the little bird

 

I am a little bird made of black and red feathers

I fly in low trees and the ground during the day in search of grains and leaves to feed on

I hide on high trees in the night to avoid my enemies

These are the animals that see me as food, and people who want to cage me for the rest of my days

My freedom is flying with my wings all spread out in the air,

Letting the wind sweep me through the open skies where there are no obstacles

Or dangerous bird eaters

When I am strong enough, I want to ride on the white clouds that travel in the sky

Those are really high and to get there, I will need the energy and warmth to sustain me up there

In case you didn’t know, it is really really cold up there.

And that isn’t just it; the higher you fly, the colder it becomes.

In that case, I need to grow thicker feathers for the flight.

I do that by plucking out some of my current feathers

I pick the older ones that don’t look very healthy and pluck the off.

This allows for more feather growth.

Anyway, enough of my planned getaway-

Life on or near the ground can be very dangerous;

That’s where I lose most of my friends…very sad.

The most recent case I remember cost the life of my friend Lizra.

She was bright, beautiful and full of life.

She loved the ground escapades that our age mates frequented to on the ground.

They would fly low sometimes too close to the giant houses and their owners

Would get all excited to see them.

Some would jump up and down trying to catch the birds,

And the birds would make a swift curve and head to the sky.

The people would look on with admiration and we were sure they so much wanted to fly.

So whenever my guys here were bored, they’d go down for some fun;

We called it diving down for some glitter!

 I always looked forward to getting courageous enough for the dive.

This only changed on the fateful day when Lizra got caught

She made the dive down just when the good sun was shining.

The bad sun is usually too hot and we cannot play much when it shines.

So Lizra and our other friends were busy getting the glitter and making the great curves

That always sent people trolling on the floor.

One of them must have felt so angry; we heard him cry

Then in the next dive as Lizra was making a curve, an oval dome

That looked just like the air in colour appeared out of nowhere.

She hardly had a chance to notice or escape from it

Rather, she flew right into it, hit herself hard against it and went

tumbling down.

The people ran and grabbed her and went into their giant house.

We were sure that Lizra had hit her body so bad on the dome and then on the ground;

There was no way she would be fine.

We tried thinking of a way to save her in vain.

Whenever we could, we peeped in the openings of the big house

But didn’t see any signs of Lizra. She must have died

 We all became very sad, and decided to do away with the dive downs.

Some of us have tried the cloud get away, but it seems dangerous too

Due to the height and the cold.

Our safe habour is in the mid-sky and on the high trees.

All we want is to lead our lives in safety and peace with everyone

But is it a crime to want some fun?

We sometimes feel so bored with this usual routine and long for some difference

We however remain warned that unsafe fun is a great risk to our lives.

That’s why we keep calm and wait to discover some safe fun.

If you see us fly just above your head,

Please don’t hurt us, we might have been bored to death,

To dare make that move!

                                                                                                                                                Lucy with the Birds!