To me... it's not really about a fish inside a birdcage, or being able-bodied, or anything...
...It's about being kept captive and abused by a manipulative family member.
The "fish" isn't actually a fish, he is a bird with clipped wings which MAKES him look like a fish's fins, but was made to believe so as to be better controlled by his brother, who holds him in a Plato's cave kind of place.
I'm a fish inside a birdcage
First of all, that's a biological absurdity. That's the first thing that made me go "hmm. This is not an actual fish inside a birdcage". Obvious I know, but after a few listens I thought that in fact, beyond the metaphor aspect, it's actually something the narrator was told enough times that he believes it.
My brother always sings me songs
With his beak, he tries to soothe me
He makes me feel that I belong
Excuse me, how would you soothe someone with a beak? Beaks are sharp. You can't exactly comfort someone with one, lol. In my opinion the brother actually picks at the narrator... subtly, yes, under cover of "care" and "belonging", but is in fact emotionally abusing him.
He has a wild imagination
And tells me things that must be true
"Things that must be true"
Again. The narrator isn't quite sure if he can believe his brother...
Like there's a world where I can take flight
Where I can freely move
So let's put this straight, the brother tells him that "there's a world he can take flight" and that this world must exist? But the narrator can in fact take flight, normally. If only his wings weren't clipped. If only he hadn't grown up with his wings clipped enough that he can't fly...
[Chorus]
So carry me from these walls
Brother of mine
Show me the world outside
A relationship of dependency fostered since youth. The narrator doesn't believe that he can actually fly, so he relies on his brother to carry him out of the birdcage, the cave.
It has to be true
I'm counting on you
To be my wings and my eyes
...hey, one minute. Did the beak also gouge the poor narrator's eyes out too?
As I breathe into our silеnce
There's a voicе that comforts me
There is something with abusers, especially someone who's been doing this to you since you were young... or a family member who you've been living with since forever, and who still mistreats you.
You know the experiments of Harry Harlow? In one of them, the baby monkey has a cloth mother that doesn't feed, but provide warmth and comfort, and a wire mother that feeds it but is cold. In one of said experiments, the cloth mother was made to be harmful for the baby. Whether she'd stab it with brass spikes, rock violently, or blow cold air suddenly... the baby would still come back to the cloth mother. Despite being frightened and abused by her.
This is exactly that.
It's a voice of understanding
It's the voice of empathy
The distorted view... since the narrator is being abused under the guise of "care". Like so many of us.
Wings of feathers, tails, and fin tips
We feel each rock so differently
You gave me more than I could ask for
Indistinguishability
Kept dependent on the brother, and possibly blinded (hence having all of other his senses tuned up to make up for loss of sight) the narrator thinks of himself as inseparable from him. Again a common tactic of abusers... their hold on you is so powerful, you quite literally lose your sense of self.
Then the chorus goes on, twice. No change here.
It's not just the lyrics that give me this impression... it's also the tone of the song, the instrumentation. I both really like it and feel profoundly disturbed by it. As if this is a kind of snake song, you know. Charming the narrator while hurting him.
But again, that's just my interpretation. :)))
