Flightless Bird Poems | Examples

WILE E COYOTE Cartoon Character Clerihew Poetry Contest

WILE E. COYOTE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With ACME’s ludicrous gadgets galore, in the desert Wile E. Coyote plots
Builds rockets and traps that his nemesis, the Roadrunner, inevitably spots.
*“Beep! Beep!” Road Runner zips past with a dare, and with a tumble and crash
Wile onto the desert does splat; undaunted, he sends ACME more cash.

Poem written for and submitted to Cartoon Characters Clerihew Poetry Contest, Tania Kitchen, sponsor, August 11, 2025

*Note:“Beep! Beep!” This onomatopoeia is commonly associated with the Road Runner in Looney Tunes cartoons featuring the speedy-yet-flightless bird and his constant pursuer, Wile E. Coyote.
(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beep,_beep_(sound))

Self-Portrait with Flightless Bird

I gave myself the body
of a secretary bird—
long legs like accusations,
a face too sharp for comfort.

But wings? I borrowed
from a taxidermied dodo:
soft, irrelevant,
stitched to the wrong century.

In the background,
a sky I did not earn.
In the foreground,
a foot poised to crush a snake
that looks suspiciously like me.

I Walked

I walk 
I walk the earth
with dark and heavy steps
I walked the earth in search of something
I walked the earth until my feet turned black

there were times of great plenty
there were times of great need
there were times when the spirit withered
I confused what I wanted with what was needed

I walk
I walk the earth
in an eternal -desperate circle
where nothing was seen nor heard
except for the shadow of a lonely step
and the scream of a flightless bird

at times the walk was profound
at times it was quite mundane
at times I walked in a cleansing drought
at times I walked in a parched-out rain

I once walked in the ego of darkness
I once walked the path of self-deception
something always brought me back into the light
into the realm of grace and divine perfection.

I walked
I walked this earth.

Right

Right


If Heaven’s gates are all that wait,
Then let that fate which I await,
Take me in; I can no longer stay.
This fool for love hopes for judgment day.  


This life I lived, to all I give,
Take it from me, I beg you please,
For if I cannot be in love and truly happy,
Then why would I live a life without?  Do you get me?


A blind man cannot see the beauty,
That is forever out of sight.
Why can I not be right for her as she for me is so right?
My plight is that of a flightless bird,
Head down in the dirt.
This light that can never to be seen by her;
The cries forlorn, which are never heard.


(C)2022 Aa Harvey. All Rights Reserved.

Lachesism

Maybe I seek meaning in the press of sympathetic eyes
Maybe within me resides a cancerous longing to shatter into a million tiny pieces
Maybe I will finally matter once tragedy razes the last vestiges of normalcy
Maybe I am a broken creature in a broken world, desperate to feel anything
I am an insomniac in the moonless night, plotting the end of my universe
I am a flightless bird careening from the top of a skyscraper
I am a suicidal survival guide to the purgatory of my own mind
I am what I've been made, a pale, pathetic being stillborn from the ashes of society
If I but had the courage to run eastward toward the dawn
If I could whitewash the blackened, soot-stained edges of my soul
If I had a blind man's courage, a dancer's grace, a mourner's strength
If sunrise brought resurrection from the death in darkness
So I wait, watching the wolves that prowl on the edges of my consciousness
So I dream, of flame and pain, of death and doom, of rain and sorrow
So I watch as life brushes past me, a stranger in the parkinglot
So I live, awaiting the devastation I know will befall me

He Writes

Sometimes he writes to her
upon a white paper moon.
The ink of his thoughts
dries to invisibility
as he folds the love-letter
into an origami model
of a flightless bird,
a creature now extinct.

He imagines her putting on her face,
dressing up
getting ready to take a taxi
to his Bayswater, London apartment.
At such times
he waits like Noel Coward
for his China dream girl
in some long forgotten play.

He picks up
a cut glass whiskey decanter
swirls the last inch of Irish around
smiles as she appears once more
at his door.

Death Online

Unsupported website…
 wingless flightless bird
 Distant echo of keystrokes past
—lost abandoned words

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

Another Poem About Despair

I saw a songbird sing
Joyful she was with her song of hope
No tears in her eyes
Just the sunshine and the baby blue skies
I heard her sing her song of admiration 
Her song filled with the sweet sounds of incarceration 
A songbird shackled by her freedom 
Behind her sweet voice she’s battling with her demon
Oh! I heard a song bird sing happily in her cage.

I saw a flightless bird soar 
He was kissed by an angel and begged for more
Filled with despair because he left her behind
An angel like that he believed he wouldn’t find
His mind racing… pacing
Fearful because he could feel his memories erasing 
Lost in the land of eternal isolations 
Excluded from the people of his nation
As he looked down, frozen
Cold his body lies without motion
Oh the beauty of see a flightless bird soar.

The Gift, the Truth, Hope and Its Sweet Promise

The Gift, The Truth, Hope And Its Sweet Promise

Your hope- you have gifted unto me
unto me, a vagabond shifting sand
a flightless bird lost in its plumage
under a great and mighty oak tree
above the sun beams
its illumination forbidding night
vanquishing darkness,  its blacken strokes
In your hope rests a truth
that this vessel surrounding my soul
is but a temporary hindrance
a shell, a decaying fortress
bearing the hits from cannon shots
empty now- awaiting reinforcement
from a cavalry that vanished long ago
Youth-
alas! was it ever real
a maddening rush into the waiting trap
I remember-those sweet summer days
barefoot, soft grass between my toes
Youth-
a man-less ship
sailing upon uncharted seas
decorating blue skies and watery echoes
I now stand-aged, looking back
amazed at the speed of flight
how life gave no care of time
no respect of defiant reality
Your hope- you have gifted unto me
knowledge, inspiration- a new goal
to die without dire regrets
to depart a man
accepting truth, light, love
and the immense vanity born into mortal flesh.

Robert J. Lindley, 3-06-2021
Free verse, (  Eternity, Seen Beyond The Purple Veil )

Painting Pictures With Words

A shimmering sun
Illuminating rays of fun

Sparkling ocean
A universe's devotion

It could be tragic
To capture the magic

Let the colors free
For exuberant eyes to see

A dazzling dance
If taken the chance

Music is my messiah
Perhaps why I'm a pariah

Painting pictures
Manic mixtures

With wily words
Here come the herds

Hide your heart
From a deviant's dart

I'm just a silly flightless bird
Painting pictures with words

A Raven's Pain

a flightless bird too sore to soar,
for i’m a raven wearing pain-
fear begins a tragical war,
whispers from sated stars remain

i kept secrets until you died,
        for you are the one i adore-
i tried to love you as you lied,
cried some more full of life’s abhor

my heart harrowing like before,
it leaks lament and doleful gloom-
        torment on the bare forest floor;
for this enigma does consume

i need not weep for what is lost,
but learn the flight to heal much more-
i save no wealth- for there’s no cost…
        restore what ravens can't ignore



1.13.20
Distant  Refrains Poetry Contest
Sponsor - Joseph May

Passivity

For want of full virtuous zeal oligarchs thrive 
Against deserving clamor for brighter ideals;
And perennially trampled commoners groan
Under weight no inured villain distantly feels. 

Bereft of real fighting energy better humans
Give in to the more determined aims to slay
Life's fairer side and reward villainy's titans; 
Enabling winds that fuel evil's choking sway. 

Vice is a flightless bird cast in wingless youth;
And his bold victims must know this total truth:
Kind men unwilling to act knit wing and plume
That latently promote all enemy gall and fume. 

And culpable crime's not by commission alone,
But by hesitations to clip his spiraling webs too;
They're held to have fired with the outlaw’s gun,
Quiet eyes that see the victim thus cruelly gone. 

Even much more to blame is the idle watcher,
Than cold-blooded hands that steal or torture.

Flightless Bird

it’s off the beaten path
this adventure she’s living
her courage and imagination
an effervescent passion
her mom can’t fathom
and follows her
accomplishments
with pure delight
and silently wishes
she could somehow
grow wings on her own



AP: Honorable Mention 2020

Posted on June 20, 2019

Origami

Oh paper crane,
how I wish upon you
to carry me afar,
my childhood spent
as a flightless bird,
my wings stifled
by the hands of a mother
who loved me too much
to let me be free.
Oh, crane,
can I still fly?
Can my folded wings
still spread out, 
perhaps slowly,
to take me to the sky,
where you will 
lead the way?

Poesy

DEAFENING SILENCE
MIND OBLIVION
CORNERED
FURIOUS TWISTING
FLIGHTLESS BIRD
USELESS MUTTERING
WALLS OF YELLOW
PEELING AWAY
PIECES OF ME
BY THE HOUR
UNTIL NOTHING
IS LEFT
WORTH
LESS
BROKEN 
DOLL
LIMBS LIMP
FORGOTTEN
FACELESS.

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