cw: allusions to abuse/cycles of abuse, all metaphorical though

It was impossible to predict
when hands would be gentle or cruel.
Sometimes, hands would feed it
its self-imposed diet of poetry;
and other times, those same hands
would try to starve it
and eat its heart.
The canary knew to never take for granted
when the hands were gentle –
and to also, never assume
that the hands would be cruel.
Sometimes they weren’t.

The day after the curtains were opened,
the canary thought
maybe
it was not supposed to be like that at all.