It has always been
like this:
The birds are locked in cages
and fed;
a gold fish is placed
inside a cool aquarium;
and the big brown dog
is tied to a post,
standing on guard
while the master
attends to his other pets.
Of course, he does not
forget them,
lest they die
and haunt him
one by one.
A balloon slips from the grip
of a little boy, and he cries;
but the balloon only reaches the ceiling,
and moves
from side to side.
This soon makes the boy laugh,
for he begins to understand —
even in this walled-in kind of life
we can be trapped
but free!