Fragments Integration Diary – Elegy Collection | Funeral Part I | Little Ba and I 

No More Cages

I once tried to get you a bigger cage,
so that your stifled breathing
could have a little more air.

You were a myna,
the "ornament" of the house—
food and water always there,
the cage cleaned from time to time,
but no one ever looked
straight into your eyes.

You were not a pet,
but a silent companion,
the only witness in that house
who understood my heart.
Every time I came home,
you always looked at me—
and I knew what you wanted to ask:

"Can we still get out?"

I couldn't take you away.
I only bought a larger prison,
so much like the poem
I wrote for myself—
a little freedom in shape,
yet the body still confined.

The day you left,
they stacked your cage
like discarded furniture,
like broken pots and pans—
no ritual, no tears,

only one sentence left:
"Let it flow away."

He said the cage I bought was useless,
just as he never admitted
that he had caged us both.

I didn't want to argue anymore.
Just like with my brother's
half-built table,
with my mother's anger
thrown at me,
with my father's blame and shame—
I said nothing.

Because I knew,
the language they spoke
was the iron bars of the cage,
and I was no longer the bird
that obeyed.

That night, I lay
in the cold, lifeless room.
The air felt like a morgue,
even dreams had no warmth.

I couldn't tell who I was mourning:
Grandpa? You?
Or the child I used to be—
the one who had to shrink herself
to barely breathe in this house.

You are free now, Little Ba.
With your death you reminded me—

not every form of living
is freedom.

I should leave too.
Not running away, but finally—

finally, no more cages.

｜Fragments Integration Diary

⟡ ⊹ fractum lumen retexitur ⊹ ⟡

→ The broken light is rewoven.

𓂀 ── ・ NANSHI・ ── 𓂀

【 not every form of living is freedom.  ｜2025】 cartography ・NANSHI