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"One eyed grumpy bird"

If the eagle had one wing,
one eye and one foot...
he would act like he does now,
it comes down to "just two wings
of the same damn bird,"
and since when do we need to
give up our rights to ensure our
freedom?
Won't we need the balance of
both wings to fly straight?
Can we close one eye and then
claim to see clearly...
enough so to see the danger we're

in, by not maintaining the clarity
of vision needed from the heights
of power... now clouded!
One foot makes us unstable...
makes us vulnerable on the ground,
we can't fly forever, hell, with one
wing... we can't fly at all.
We have become an ugly large
awkward hopping bird, having distanced
ourselves from the proud bird of flight,
truly becoming of the American Eagle
we were... forgotten, to shudder at
fear... caged by thoughts and beliefs-
chained by the laws of restriction.
Sure, we are still an eagle... the shame
comes from not acting like one!
The blame of being an eagle is to
think on the Independence we used
to have and doing nothing to obtain
the freedom we used to enjoy...
thinking one side or the other might
offer solace to our condition and
not bind us to our plight, seeking
to control us.
Our own ignorance comes from believing
this to be true... forsaking the heights we
used to command with the gift of flight,
the sight to see danger and find food or
the ability to perch at an altitude becoming
the stature of who we were... an American
Eagle.
Never before and never again shall we see
the perils that exist today, to confound our
ability to sense the wrongness and our inability
to express the concerns damaging our image
of ourselves... this one eyed grumpy bird
with thin skin, lifting a tail to the truth.

Learn more about this author, Russell Holder.
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