Blue Bird that Sings by Liz Fontano (Texas, 19)

Betraying boundaries that we have made,
Created defectives based off how we’re portrayed,
Established prophecies that praise your name,
And ensure that it’s legacy will leave us in suffering,
And assert we are naturally weak and a detriment,

You,
Put a bird in a cage,
Clipped their wings,
Let them, spin,
You,
Then claim it as flightless,
“It chose its reliance”,
On that wing-clipping man,
​

You lay in your estate,
While our wings are adjusting,
You allege we are ‘tamed’,
Yet our bars are all dusty,
Then, you open the cage,
And begin to deflate,
When we are out of place…

But we escape,
We have made our escape,

You begin to squawk,
Say we’ve prevented you from talking,
You find your purpose lacking,
And therefore, claim we are attacking…
When the blue bird is not your blue bird that sings



Elizabeth Fontano, 19 years old, lives in Fort Worth, Texas where she is in her second semester of college, working towards an associates of art degree. Elizabeth has been writing as a hobby since she was 13, and hopes to make a career out of it. In her eighth grade year, in 2019, her poetry “A Writer’s Devotion” was successfully submitted into “Poetry Escape” for the Young Writers USA contest. Considering herself a modern Renaissance woman, Elizabeth spends her free time reading Classic Literature, oil painting, writing, and playing video games.