Written by Hassan Usman

in a bird flying at sunset, talk of starlings

how they go crazy in murmurations, grieving

i hear their plumages praying not to be preys this evening

while they run from predators to their roosting

in a timid boy on a playground

the bigger boys hijack his toys & his heart pounds

he wraps his tears, voices out in a shuddering sound

& awaits a hero that might come around

in an ex-convict

how he lives each day in the echoes of his verdict

the society still clusters to call him a drug addict

& he’d never get to run for any office in that district

this is how i view freedom from a windowpane

in the fear that makes starlings go insane

in the horrified heart of a boy with paper planes

in a prisoner freed into the hands of pain

so i choose to be locked

than gifted freedom that’s fucked

which is why i built my heaven in this hell

saying: a caged girl is a happy girl