Beautiful Bird in a Gilded Cage

Beautiful Bird in a gilded cage.

Door open............................................ Fly free?

No flight taken, Bird stands still.

Still and pretty.

Outside the cage, the air is heavy with the scent of oppression.

Inside the cage, the air is suffocatingly sweet.

The Bird is decorated with flowers and natural jewels which glisten in the sun.

If the Bird leaves its caged paradise, its natural beauty will be replaced. Replaced  by a layer of false beauty.

Beauty in their image.

False beauty with an air of seediness about it.

So, the Bird stays in the confines of its gilded cage.

Beautiful but not free.

Carol O'Donovan 

30th June 2013

photo credit: National Trust Images/John Hammond