Apart of You [Poetry]

The Bickering Birds

Two birds once lived without peace,
Siblings who never could cease
Their fighting and screaming each day,
Over food and over each way.

They wanted whatever the other possessed,
Not a moment their anger digressed.
From dawn until night their dispute lasted,
How their neighbors were sorely harassed!

Exhausted they'd finally retire,
But renewed was their vigor and ire.
Though none could endure their contention,
Still came their sharp shrieks without pension.

Fool were you if their kinship you missed,
Naught but siblings e'er so persist
In quarrel and wrangle and bicker without rest,
As these birds so annoyingly blest!

One day in their usual angry bout,
The birds flew swiftly in and out.
Not watching the path that they took,
Into a hunter's net they shook!

Entangled and trapped they shrieked in dismay,
No more of their fighting and squawking that day.
The hunter approached with a grin on his face,
"At last I have caught you, you quarrelsome brace!"

He bundled them up with a laugh in good cheer,
Their doom now was sealed, that much was now clear.
But as he journeyed, their plaintive cries rose,
And awoke in his heart some pity for those

Poor birds in misfortune now joined as but one,
Their bitterness past, their harsh days now done.
"I'll give you one chance," said the hunter, "to prove
If you've learned from this error, and peacefully move.
I'll loosen the net, if you promise to fly
Far off from this place, in peace side by side.
Let your fighting now cease, go live as friends true,
Else back in my net, I shall bring the two of you!"

The birds gladly promised to live without strife,
Valuing freedom now more than a quarrelsome life.
The hunter smiled and opened their cage,
The birds flew off together, their anger to assuage.

And it's said that those birds kept their promise that day,
Learning friendship through hardship and finding a way
To live as companions content in each other's sight,
All their fighting now over, they lived peacefully light.