It's intriguing the way birds become ominous with the memory of the boy who treated this former schoolkid like one.
I'm not sure whether the bird caging is a metaphor for actual imprisonment, someone literally not being allowed out of a house, or only ("only" because it would be part of the other scenario as well) a too-possessive love.
The poem also gives me mixed messages about how traumatic the caging was. That it's being written about suggests it was important and the results long lasting, but it's all very abstract. Even the screaming is melodious and the "you" is said to have screamed "one time."
The explicit shift to discussing the caging begins: "& maybe you that one time...," a casual mention that works against my feeling that the "you" is strongly focused on this past event.
Maybe the intention is that "you" is trying not to think about it? That makes intellectual sense, but it's not the impression the poem leaves me with.
Would "now only" be clearer than "only now" (L6)?
FWIW.
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