Caged

It must have been 15 days, because there is a small window on the top of the building where I can see the sky, clouds, and a few flying birds. I keep track of how many nights are and mark them on the wall with a piece of charcoal. I stared through the window and saw a flock of birds flying around merrily, and then there were caged birds who had been caged for no explicable reason and were living a nightmare. When I get home, I'm going to free all of my pet birds. There will be no more cages, and everyone who wants to fly will be freed to do so. I feel like a caged bird now; I wept and pleaded for help, but no one responded; I eat, I sleep, and they give me water all around these giant walls.

I toiled in a foreign nation for 5 years, carrying many dreams and obligations on my shoulders. When I arrived in the sand pit, the conditions were harsh: long work hours, extreme heat, and I felt like a machine with a start and stop button. Finally, one day, I couldn't take it any longer and decided to return to my homeland; but, the image of her face, her smile, and her tears entered my mind. My mother, the lady who is the only cause for my existence, had her debts paid off for five years, and she had acquired financial security, so I was excited to return.

Now that I've returned to my country after a 5-year absence, everything felt brand new to me, I was overjoyed and eager to get out of the airport and meet my parents, but then a few officers approached me, asked me some questions, and took my passport, officers one after another repeated the same question, cabins after cabins, they placed a black cloth on my head, and shifted me to a different vehicle. I was unconscious when I awoke in this dark chamber, where they had dragged the food on the floor, and I ate sometimes and did not eat other times. I'm not sure if it's my face, my beard, or my name that makes me look like someone, and I'm not sure when they'll leave me. Is there anyone with my name who is a criminal or a terrorist? They've collected my blood sample; will they realize they've made a mistake and leave me soon?

When I close my eyes, I picture my mother's smiling smile, my parents' warm embrace, the way they caress my face with utmost affection, and the gorgeous flowers in our yard. A hammock that I asked my brother to make for me, the smell of petrichor from my house as I sat on my balcony sipping tea, eating a plantain from our orchards, the aroma of mom's red fish curry, we all having a meal together with talks and laughter, with a long thud, a piece of bread and some vegetables were dragged on the floor, I screamed and cried, and I collapsed into the wall.

Why have you jailed me here?

Why are you torturing me like this?

Is there anyone who could please respond?

I want to go home !

Screams echoed through the walls until fading into silence.