Birdland: A tale about matter and meaning

By Nadhim Mejbil Faleh

From inside this brass cage, the world outside the bars looks like a distorted painting. I stand here, on the rough wooden perch, looking at the world from behind these straight, merciless lines. They are not just bars; they are boundaries imposed by the "Giant" who fill our room with the smell of paper and machines.
I do not call this place an "office" as they do, but the "Cave of Glass Walls." In a corner far from the window, where the light arrives only faintly, as if it is shy to pass, I sit with my gray mate. We do not move our wings except to brush the dust of silence from our feathers. I lift my wing, settle it with dignity, then flick it sharply; an instinctual movement that tells me my body still remembers how to pierce the air, even though my memory has begun to erode under the weight of this twisted brass.

The giant called "Arthur" moves around as if wiping the earth with his heavy feet. He does not look at us; he "analyzes" us. He stands behind his massive wooden desk, striking its surface with a metal pen, creating a sharp, metallic sound that reverberates in my ears like a stab to my peace. He thinks he is the master of this place, the master of this system he calls "balance."
Chapter 1: The Prison of Stillness
I heard his voice echo in the room, a dry tone lacking a pulse: "Observe, Lorraine. An amazing biological system, neither erring nor improvising. They operate according to precise stimuli; if we give them food, they stabilize. If we provide them with heat, the state remains constant. This is perfection, Lorraine. These birds are the living embodiment of the victory of order over randomness."
Lorraine... her voice was in the far corner; near the window we only see with difficulty. She is not like him; she doesn't strike tables or measure the world with a ruler. Her voice flowed through the air like a prayer to something unknown, something wider than this room: "You call it a system, Arthur, and I call it a tomb for their essence. You look at them as machines, while they carry the memory of the sky in their veins. Don't you see how they perch in silence? It's a protest, Arthur, a protest that transcends your equations; it is the silence of beings waiting for their true call."
I tucked my feathers tighter and closed my eyes halfway. Lorraine understands, but she holds no keys to this prison. Arthur, that materialist giant, sees only matter under a microscope. He sees "results," and we see a lost "horizon." I chirped a soft, faint sound, not for Arthur to hear, but for Lorraine, so she would know we are here, watching, waiting, and that we are not just matter sitting in a far corner.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H4HHZCXW
• ISBN13: 9798180599032
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 78 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 8.0"