Stone Soup

Where young artists paint the world with words

The international magazine of stories, poems, and art by young writers and artists. Published continuously since 1973.

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Free As a Bird

Free As a Bird Feathers flap, determined. Wings glide, graceful. “You can't be a bird If you don’t fly,” they say. You can’t be a bird if you don’t try. So I watch each baby bird Flap its wings and grow. Soon it flies away But I have no choice But to stay. “Why don’t I go Towards the sky,”they ask. Why can’t I be the bird that Doesn’t Fly.