like a bird without a song

I want to sleep
all day tomorrow
I want to wake
​up at night and smile
because another day
has disappeared 

when I was a child
I used to save things

cats with distemper
abandoned dogs
moths caught
in the light 
a baby bird
with its unsteady
big head
fallen from a tree
no mama bird 
in sight

I saved it in a shoe box
stayed up at night
it died anyway
I gave it some doll's
baby blue blanket

I dug worms
with my hands
to feed it
​but it wouldn't eat

after it was gone
I heard its
mother's sad song
she stayed in
​the same tree
 but eventually
she stopped
singing 

how sad
that her baby
died in a shoe box
listening to
New Kids on the Block

even then I sucked
as a mother
I buried the baby bird
in the backyard 
under the tree
with a troll doll
so it wouldn't be alone

I went on to harvest
frogs and toads
that escaped or died
in the dark recesses 
of my room

I used to sing
when I was a child
when I was in love
even though I can't 
carry a tune
I used to sing to my baby
but now she does all the 
singing
and she isn't doing it 
around me

my blanket
wasn't enough

in the distance
a mother bird
is calling
from some tree
stuck in the past

no one listens 
to her song
now she is just
a cry unheard