It’s great living here but I miss my other self. I love my cage but I miss my other home. The cage is big and neat. Someone always comes to clean up, plus I am tidy so I hardly make it too dirty. He is my owner, a good man. I knew he is a man because in my previous life, I was a woman. I sing a lot but he doesn’t understand my songs though sometimes he stares at me like he does comprehend. I wish I could talk. If I did, I would ask him his name.

The man bought me at a carnival. I don’t remember how I got there. The last memory I have before that was being a woman. I was in a hospital. Can’t quite recall my name but I remember my husband’s, he was Tim. I remember the look on his eyes when the doctor said that I wouldn’t make it. “Don’t leave me,” the last thing I heard him say. I felt the same towards him just that words couldn’t come out of my mouth. That was the last of my-self, in that form.

The man took me out to the fields only once and let me fly away. The world was so beautiful from up there. All the people looked small and harmless. The sea was one big blue and the farms were in pattern. I felt free- like if I flew far away, I would find my other self. I didn’t, though I met Tim. I flew past a cemetery and I saw him laying flowers on a headstone. He was crying so I flew over to his shoulder. He did not even twitch or look at me. “Silly bird”, he must have thought. I felt his pain, he was mourning over my past self. If I could talk I would let him know that I was there with him, I never really left.

I just want to fly away so I can see the world’s beauty and Tim, again. I did come back to my cage. I stay in too long, I can tell- the man doesn’t want me to get lost in the world. I am now sure that even if I got lost, I will never meet my other self. I finally realize that now I am just a bird. I long for the day when the man will set me free, for I will not run …