Day 33: If I was a Bird

If I was a Bird
by
Matt Zurbo

 

If I was a bird, oh, I’d fly.
(Hummingbird)

I’d glide and glide on the wind, without flapping my wings at all.
(Hawk)

If I was a bird I’d swoop and rise, I’d bank and turn and use every inch of the sky.
(Swallows)

If I was a bird, oh, the things I’d see, all over the cliffs and out to sea…
(Albatross flying over two whales)

If I was a bird, I’d be a crow, I’d be a penguin, an ibis, a blue breasted wren…

If I was a bird, I’d hate your cat. A hunting, prowling thing, that ate my mum and dad…
(KIngfisher fending off cat.)

If you were a bird, while you fed our chicks, I’d keep watch, protect you from vicious things.
(Nightjars)

If I was a bird, I’d eat lizards and stuff. A spider, a butterfly, a snake…
(Kookaburra)

If I was an owl, oh, I’d fly with the moon! Through its beams I’d prowl and call…(Owl)

If I was an emu I’d run and run and run, as if the world was flat…
(Emu)

If I was a little magpie I’d pick on an eagle with my friends.
(Magpies and wedged-tail eagle)

If I was a bird, the thing I’d hate the most, would be the call of a cocky, trapped in a cage, alone, unable to be free…
(White, yellow-crowned cocky in a cage, being watched by a Rosella)

I’d listen to that cocky call “Hello cocky!” like it was taught, and instead teach it to say “Hello freedom, hello world!”
(Cocky in cage, watching Rosella spread its wings, cage door open)
then I’D SET IT FREE!

If I was a freed cocky, I’d fly through the valleys, and over the ridges, until I found a flock.
(Black cockies)

If I was a freed cocky I’d teach all the wild cockies to craw; “Hello freedom, hello world!”
(Black cockies, roosted on tree braches, watching White cocky spread its wings.)

so that if you were ever down hiking through a mountain canopy you might look up and hear us
“Hello freedom! Hello world!”
“Hello freedom! Hello world!”
(Hikers looking up at flock of cockies overhead)

and feel like a king for a while.
(Hikers smiling, cockies in background)

If I was a bird I’d….
poo on your cat,
nest with my young,
and sleep safe for a night
(bird of artist’s choice, sleeping with young.)

Before singing in the dawn.
(Lone liarbird singing)

As the Earth span, a billion birds, so different, so the same, would be singing…
   “I’m hungry”
   “I’m angry”
   “I’m prettier than him”
   “I’m tough”
(Numerous types of bird singing.)

If I was a bird I’d sing; “Who want’s to sing with me?”
(Toucan)

Each moment, somewhere on this planet, dawn would be flowing, pushing out the night, as if that’s what makes us spin. Us birds, oh, we would set the world alight! We would lift the sun into the sky with our song,
(Earth, as sun rises behind it)

stand on ledges of great height
(Swift)

tree limbs,
(Crows)

roofs,
(Rooster)

cliff tops…
(White sea eagle)

water’s edge
(Pelican)

and take flight!
(Empty branch)

 

The End