"Do you fly?"

Asked the bird, with a gay little chirp.

"No,no!" 

Laughed I, with a smile.

"How could I fly? That is not where I am meant to go."

"Oh, no!" said I. "But tell me, little bird, why don't you fly?"

"There is danger in the skies; wind and currents whip and rise;

Hawks and eagles rule where I once took my home.

Now I fear to take to the skies, but still, I can fly."

"Then,"

I cried,

"you are no better than I!

You ask, 'do you fly?', when you know that I have tried.

Oh no, little bird, do not tempt my own desire."

And I took the little bird and stripped off every feather

from those fine, grand wings. 

Then I asked,

"So tell me, little bird,

Do you fly?"