God, Is Charlie With You Now?

Charlie, the cockatoo, who had lived with our family for going on eleven years, was enjoying himself, talking, practicing a new, and exotic monologue, which would, as it always did, surprise and entertain, in a most unusual way, the owners, who consisted of a whole gaggle of and that's what we were, unruly, troublesome, pestering, over-bored and irresponsibly stupid, kids and grown ups. Well, never you mind, all others, wild and free, sitting there on your lofty, and vinyl-clad telephone wires, chests out and pompous smiles on your silly faces, beaks just like mine, not as sharp and pointed, perhaps, no, I am the king, who, in his enforced and short-lived incarceration, wait and see, has let no minute pass, no sunset turn its gray and triste half-light, without working on it, The Plan, yes, I, Charlie, calling it, and will be remembered by, for all times, the Great Escape. Sturdy wire, yes, I understand, making up the so called structure, the skeleton of the aviary, my pathetic house of galvanised steel, but the gaps, you get it? Are filled in by a small-squared and flexible, and almost edible mesh, courtesy of the Sears, Roebuck and Company, Farm Division. Yes I have been, I was able to make time, working on The Plan, day in, day out, talking, believe it or not, simultaneously, mouth full of wire, to be spat into a neutral spot, not too obvious, of course, what do you, or, in fact what does anyone think I am? Stupid? Oh My God! Holy Eucalypt! Arrrrgh. Eeeeh. Oooooghhh. Dearly Beloved, it is my sad duty today, to announce the passing of a great friend, he was an entertainer, a singer, an orator, no one told better, or more elaborate jokes, and tales, tales from, among other regions, much less important, the outback, bush, among the Gum Trees, if you get my meaning, he, you all know him by, and loved him through the name of Charlie, had this grandiose plan. God knows, he liked us all, even loved us, but there was something in him that nothing and no one can ever erase, or undo. It's this freedom thing, a true pre-occupation, and it is with deep sorrow that I hereby give unto you, dear Lord, this bird, a family member of the highest standing, to you, so that he may sit with you in the Kingdom of Heaven, to your right or your left, to entertain you and to be Charlie, Heavenly Charlie. And Lord, it is of course, and don't I know it, none of my goddam business, but why did you let Charlie, our beloved cockatoo, eat all the small wire, making a hole, big enough to let that son of a big mother-of-God carpet snake python slip in, eat Charlie and, then, of all the strange things, choke on his loveliness and his own excess saliva? God, you do work in mysterious ways, I just hope you two like each other. I am only five now, and I will pray each night to you, of course, and ask you, Please take good care of and love my best friend, the feathered one who can talk, and could pray with you, my best friend, Charlie. I know you will.