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The Fourth River

A Journal of Nature and Place-based Writing Published by the Chatham University MFA Program
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Watching Caged Birds

November 13, 2025

by Noeme Tabor–Farjani

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Perhaps some birds are better off caged

in comfort behind railings of a home

free birds seek. 

Maybe they are too splendid 

for a sky that’s full of song. 

What service can they offer but captivity? 

Perhaps some birds would rather stay in 

safe from an assault of doubts 

that are carried by wind, 

a perpetual courier of needs and wants

What else is to be done with feeding trays 

that are filled up to the brim, laid

before their full stomach?

Perhaps they are but accessories 

to carry on a special mission 

of relief for some early worms.

 

Noeme Grace C Tabor-Farjani, PhD, is a Tripoli, Libya-based Filipino poet and memoirist. She is the author of the poetry collections The Gospel of Grace (Newcomer Press, 2021) and Inspecting Wastelands (Ukiyoto, 2023) as well as Letters from Libya: Letters-in-Memoirs (2018), a prose chapbook on her family’s escape from war.

In O.16, Poetry 2 Tags Noeme Tabor–Farjani
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