The Freedom Fighter Poem by Palitha Ranatunge

A long time ago when I was a small child
I caught a bird, a bird of brown feathers
Tiny blue sparkling eyes around its short beak
I caught it after hours of struggle,

I put it in a cage that was made of wood
And gave it many a food and purest water to drink
On the following morning, I noticed
It was dying shivering with utmost pain
With eyes and beak soaked with blood,

It had knocked and knocked
Its tiny head against the thickness
Of the hard wooden walls
And killed itself
Leaving all my cares,

I was puzzled and sad
Why it did it, though I gave it
A nice cage to live,
Sweetest food to eat
Purest water to drink,

I enquired from my mother
Why it wanted to kill itself
And I was told,
Fear of death it died, knocking its head
Against the thick wooden walls,

No mother, it was not the reason
After many a year today
I know why it killed itself,
It died of fear of loosing
The freedom of life,
Because there was no use
Of living without such.