I dreamed I was an eagle flying almost touching the clouds
I dreamed I saw other eagles dying fallen on the ground
I knew there were not many of us so I flew a little faster
A search for truth
A feeling of youth
Staving off disaster
I dreamed I was inside the wires like Max Headroom (only cuter)
I dreamed I saw ones and zeros, it was someone’s computer
It was a scary place to visit I wouldn’t want to live [t]here
A promise to keep
A longing for sleep
A message to deliver
I dreamed it was all ok now for the eagle caught in the wires
I dreamed it was today now and I was feeling inspired
I knew we were all very different I knew we were all the same
Crying for country
Longing for home
Proud to bear our name
I was six feet from an eagle near the river south of town
He was tethered and he was wary his eyes searching around
He was fed but not respected in the building with fluorescent lights
A powerful bird
His gift removed
The miracle of flight
And outside that very window other eagles flew
Soaring first then diving hungry but ah what a view
He dreamed of joining his kinfolk for years til he dreamed no more
Afraid to believe
Asking G*d for reprieve
Wanting nothing more
But someone stopped his letters and his pencil didn’t work
And he was shuffled off to the factory where he was told to work
And someone kept the profits but he didn’t know their name
His lawsuit rejected
Exhaustion respected
Exhaustion he knew that name
In a large room some people gathered guards stood at the door
They talked about him and they plotted then they took it to the floor
They did not name him by number but identified him all the same
A general law
Good for us all
The eagle was tethered again
And they went home that night to their loved ones their wine and their tvs
They forgot about the eagle and that eagles soar over trees
Then they manufactured paper then they scanned it and then it was gone
A poof of smoke
For common folk
Forget about the wrong
But if you went to every house on every block on every street
And asked this simple question, should the eagle be tethered at his feet?
You’d get a lot of answers but I bet there’d be a theme
It depends what he did,
Does he have kids?
All of us get to dream
What if it turned out the eagle was there by big mistake
The mistake of the few the mistake of the many many mistakes
Cause the court had become a factory, just widgets no one cared
Shut up and plead
No time for your needs
I don’t care if you are scared
We have budgets to think of and cronies and we can’t be bothered with you
I don’t care if you think you’re an eagle and that eagles have rights too
I am busy (I am so very busy) I can’t take the time for your rights
SCOTUS you said?
Something you read?
That’s tough reality bites
So the eagle was put in a squad car or a bus and traveled around
And the sheriff did not check the papers just assumed and took him on down
And he sat for years in the tether in that building with fluorescent lights
He grieved when he could
A hearing or two-so they said
When he got into fights
And he was not aware not like others that the leather was replaced with wires
With ones and zeros and routers and hackers trespassers for hire
He could not have imagined the changes and what would take place
Prevented from viewing
Let alone reviewing
That place they call cyber space
But he prayed to his G*d when he could even when they denied it
He imagined a place where he flew though he could not get inside it
And he wondered about changes about kinfolk and getting off paper
But the paper was gone
The term was all wrong
Now-off cyber
Eagles fly by cliffs over mountains over trees
Eagles fly in sunshine under clouds on the breeze
Eagles fly in cyber you hardly could conceive it
Through the wires
Putting out fires
You better believe it
And the dream is a still a dream but it has a distinctive shape now
Like a picture of dots I mean pixels you can see it if you stand away now
Two hundred bucks and a kiss for luck off to do the rest
Singing songs
Don’t know how long
Hoping for the best
The story isn’t finished I am sure there’s more to write
But the sun is getting higher and there’s lots to do before night
And even though I’m tethered in a cyber kind of way
One day at a time
I chose the uphill climb
And the sky’s not gray today
Copyright 2013 Jill Clark