Caged

Start with a square, colored side up.
Fold the top corner down to the bottom
corner. Crease and open. Fold 1000
and you’ll get your wish. Black metal
wire. These suspended odds are getting
slimmer. Fold in half sideways, flip
to the white side. String her along,
but caught birds don’t sing in tune. Fold
in half, crease and open. Fold again
in the other direction. You’ve trapped
her neatly, a clean sweep, but those
feathers keep falling. Follow the creases.
Bring the top 3 corners down to the bottom
corner. When she calms down, locked
by a look, frozen by design, to stay invisible.
Flatten. Fold the top triangles into the center,
unfold. Suspended by a string, nearly
invisible if it weren’t for the messy knot.
Fold top downwards, crease and unfold.
The knot won’t loosen. Let this be a lesson
to her. The length of the leash correlates
to her trust in her deceiver. Open the top
flap, bring it up and press in the sides.
You learn which strings to pull, how
to make her perform. Flatten, crease.
Turn over and repeat. That long neck nearly
wrung, bruised besides. Fold top flaps
into the center on both sides. Those pointy
wings clipped. Fold legs up, crease well,
then unfold. A deformed tail, 25 strings.
She’s contemplating that knot. Inside reverse
fold the legs following the creases. The cage
door is open. 40 per string, bead at the bottom.
Inside reverse fold one side to make a head,
then fold the wings down. Meant to be made,
but not kept. The wishes only ever fall off
the wake of their wings.









Jamie Haddox vehemently believes that a little mud isn’t as bad as a rash you can’t hide, a tooth headache, or unrequited love. She is unsure, when it comes to cranes and herons, what law velcros one or unhinges the other. One hundred percent of the time, she will choose a leftover hibachi scallop over beans from the garden. She is based in Minnesota. http://jamiehaddox.blogspot.com