Broken Wing
From the album Field of Dreams
If you could fly where would you go
To distant lands where warm winds blow
Or would you like to stay near home
Where what you see is what you know
From branch to branch from friend to friend
To hungry mouths that you must tend
My feathered friend with broken wing
How sad the song that you now sing
Chorus
The highest mountains I have climbed
And seen the world from way up high
Such complex problems I have solved
Some with brass and some with gold
An empire lays beneath my feet
But as I look down at your beak
None of that means a thing
If I can’t mend your broken wing
From branch to branch I watch you fly
With careless soul and weary eye
The world can be a dangerous place
For gentle hearts that lose the race
My furry friend who hunts for fun
Do you understand what you have done
But I know I can’t hold you to blame
As in your place, I would do the same
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG
Cookie turned up uninvited one day and informed us she was going to live with us. I don’t like being treated like a servant, which is why I never regarded myself as a cat person, but I must admit, you do get attached to them. The problem is, Cookie is a furry killing machine which is OK with mice and rats, not so OK with lizards and snakes and definitely not OK with birds.
Recently, she killed a beautiful African Hoopoe and left it intact on our step like she knew she had gone too far this time. Honestly, it flies all the way from Africa, stops off for a kip in Mlini and then wallop…no more bird. Grounding Cookie or even telling her off, doesn’t have much effect, so all I could do was write this song, even if she does refuse to listen to it.
Nemo’s Books
