Open the cage a bit
Let the children escape the trap of life
Let them try the taste of electricity
Let them touch the thrill of the cinema with their tiny fingers
To anxiously ask about the train’s schedule
To meet themselves outside of daydreams
Let them, once in their lives, cross a footpath
Walk on two feet
Like an idea trying the asphalt.
Open the huge cage,
So that the birds may know the value of their wings
That there are other languages beyond chirping
And endings nicer than an ambulance
That travel is bluer than the sea
And harbors are like love shiny in green
Let them go free
And let the fathers guard their absence
Leave the roots in the dark
So that flowers can rise towards the sun
Climb our shoulders
Get out of the rubble
So that you can see what we did not see
And what we did not get to know
That the cages are guilty
And we are innocent
Open the huge cage
Open it
Blow it up
Let the children out
To knead their dreams with the water of wonder
To send their desires through the mail of experience
To grow away from the remains of time
And to scatter temptation like sweets
In the palms of their mothers
How they dragged the ship by its horns to the top of a mountain
Let them lie
And let us pamper the evening a bit
We shall believe them
No doubt
And we shall ask
How did you wake up the laughter of April!
In a year or two
They shall come back
They shall not be late
No one misses one’s family’s funeral
Nasser Rabah
24/6/2025
