Mountain Bluebird picture by Elaine R. Wilson on naturespicsonline.com shared under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5

You flew onto the gilded stage where all the world could see
And found it was another cage, locked without a key
A pretty bird to sing a song amid the smoky air
Trapped by the expectations of the ones who put you there
 
They come together every night to hear your voice and see
The songbird’s songs of love and pain in haunted melody
Hearing songs that take them to the springtime of their life
Living through your melodies your joy and pain and strife

I don’t know how you wove your soul into the lyrics of a song
I don’t know how to make right the words that came out wrong
I just know I love you and it breaks my heart to see
You flying up against the walls trying to break free
 
What happens to the songbird when she’s lost her will to sing
When she sits inside her golden cage because we clipped her wings
When her brightly colored feathers slowly fade to a dull grey
And the crowds that used to flock to her no longer come her way
 
They’ll find another songbird to put up on that stage
A beauty to remind them of when they were her age
But I’ll still love the songbird and I’ll try to set her free
But we broke her heart and broke her will for all eternity
 
Someone broke our songbird and she lost her drive to fly
Above where we mere mortal dwell, to dare her native sky
A fallen star or fallen angel cast upon the clay
I watched the rise, I watched the fall, now songbird fly away
I watched you rise, I watched you fall,
Please songbird fly away