Home, Sweet Home Poem by Akhtar Jawad

Alas! They flew away!
An immigrant they became,
they were born in a cage,
and passing a happy life in it,
sometimes strife that ended in love.
Four utensils of clay,
the largest one their bed room,
where they laid eggs,
and incubated in turns,
the smaller one to sleep separately
during the strife,
another for grains,
they ate together,
and the fourth one a lake for them,
for drinking and dancing,
loving and romancing
two rings for sitting
separately during the strife,
but mostly I saw them,
on the same ring,
kissing each other with the hard nibs,
I wished they would have been blessed,
with soft lips like us,
and a free life,
flying with the clouds,
chasing each other,
on the green branches of trees,
among the colorful fragrant flowers,
eating semi ripen fruits
and drinking water collected
in depressions of the earth,
making love while flying in the air.
I never knew
those who are born in a cage
don't know the art of flying.
The birds were handed over to me
for only a few months
by a friend
who was proceeding abroad
I was requested to take care of the birds,
my friend a master having knowledge
never knew I shall prove myself
an ignorant friend for the beautiful birds,
colorful, green and yellow,
two small parrots,
the female was mostly green
and the male was mostly yellow.
And when I opened the door of the cage,
they didn't come out,
I left them alone and started peeping
from the windows of my room,
the female was incubating her eggs,
the male came out after sometimes
and started jumping like a frog,
sometimes on the roof of the cage
sometimes on the greaser
sometimes on the top of the door
and the female just watching her spouse.
Next day I saw the female
repeating the same exercises.
Days passed and I saw
two young ones In the cage
and when these young ones
started taking their food themselves,
the couple disappeared.
Next day I saw tiny bones,
green and yellow feathers of the immigrants!
Roof of my house is ruled by the vagabond cats.
I rushed to the ground floor,
the young ones were in the cage,
they should remain in their home,
sweet home where they were born,
I closed the doors of the cage.