What does "I saw a dead bird flying through a broken sky" mean?

Question

This is a quote from a Nas song off the album Stillmatic....I'd like to hear opinions on what this line means...I will be posting this question in the music, poetry, and philosophy sections to compare and contrast the answers I get...Thank you beforehand for whatever input is given.

Answer 1

The poet was hang gliding thru a Martain asteroid belt with his chain saw fully engaged leaving dead Martian birds in his wake. There WAS life on Mars...  

Answer 2

The poet obvious has an existential perspective on reality.  The dead bird and broken sky refers to the meaninglessness of life.  We have no objective purpose in life.  We are already dead, reality is broken.

Yet the dead bird takes flight, as if it didn't know it was already dead.  The poet is reflecting upon his own life.  While he accepts the existential premise as reality, he lives his life as if it does has meaning and purpose.

Answer 3

It means that the writer had taken some drugs that had created non-existent images which he took for reality.  Happens to the best of us.

Answer 4

A bird flying through the sky suggests freedom, and a carefree existence, soaring with playful ease.

A dead bird, flying through a broken sky perhaps alludes to lack of freedom, an absence of carefree playful ease, or the painful transition from one to the other.

Answer 5

too much Magritte for you