(Guest post by Paul F. Lenzi from http://poesypluspolemics.com/)
deep within a Ming palace
sprawling six hundred years
upon secret imperial grounds
behind blood-red façade
beneath yellow glazed tiles
and mythic menagerie eaves
amid rampant dragons
stalking capital pinnacles
of mighty wood columns
hangs a vast multi-tiered
human-family-sized cage
slender members of bonework
traced with intricate filigree
delicate latticework
woven splinters and splines
of ivories and jades
once home to bright plumage
exotic and sacred and captive
rare birds unaware
they were lodging in paradise
scottishmomus 