Parakeets

born
in
an egg
nested high
our skyscraper home
in this immigrant neighbourhood
our parents flew here from ancestral rain forests
to this land of hope and trash cans
we peck to escape
cocoon-shell
safety
and
screech

down
there
concrete
city streets
where men carry guns
up here us downy chicks holler
flapping limp useless wings stranded and crying for worms
new feathers preened red green and blue
we perch on a wire
precipiced
to fly
or
fall