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The Ghost Prisoner

Updated: Jun 3, 2023

By Ayn Mawaddat (Zainab Shahzad)



He is a young lad,

raggedly clad

Innocent and naive

His heart fully alive

Though he runs a teastall

Doesn't dream small

His father's unwell

Hence he manages all

His responsibilities well

His friends do tell.


He works by the day

Studies at night

Think you may

His future's bright


He minds his own business

And focuses on his wishes

He wishes nobody harm

He is childlike, he is calm

He prays to the Divine

With faith that all will be fine

In the world out there

Better times are to dwell


Let me warn you

He is religious

He loves his faith

He is devoted and pious


Now the sun has set

He suddenly finds himself

In the world of fret

He opens his eyes

And in pain he cries

Moved from his bed

To the prison of threat

Abducted overnight

His rights denied

To know his crime

Or detention time


He's prisoner no 904

That's it he knows

And nothing more

The dark and gloom

The pangs of pain

The electric room

The shocks that rain


He twitches and screams

The iron wire

the electric beams

He's caned, he's whipped

He's jolted, he's stripped


"You're a ghost prisoner"

"You've been accused"

"You pretentious tea staller"

"Your crime will be proved"


They lash him and they laugh

They draw blood from his calf

His pain is their pleasure

To pool him in blood

They take every measure


The more he screams

The more they laugh

Blood oozes in streams

The wire in his flesh

Looks like an epitaph

His throat feels dry

They mimic his cry

He yearns to die

Their pleasure in his

Pain getting high


He cries in God's name

They continue their game

That torture looks like fun

Shredding flesh

Using their favourite weapon


I can't come to imagine

The echo of his screams

I'll not sleep for nights

Their savagery haunts

my dreams

His shriek still resonates

Horror it emanates

How did he tolerate?

Why were they desolate?

And why so uncompassionate?


His howling outburst

His innocent cries

His heart wrenching pain

His fight against their surmise


Our hearts might tremor

Feeling his agony

Why didn't they quiver

What happened to humanity?



He wasn't a soldier

But he told his father

Without being on the border

I'll serve my country

Now he was a prisoner

Charged of terror

Exiled forever

By the governing gentry


Finally he's acquitted

Innocent he's declared

All Charges omitted

But it's too late he's already dead


A silent smile beautifies his face

His soul finally does depart

From this world of disgrace

From the bondage of the beating heart


That smile speaks loud and clear

He wishfully walked away from fear

From his final breath

Into the lap of death


Death to him

seemed so sweet

Beyond this life

justice he'll meet

His smile was a message

Death is sweeter than life

This life is a passage

Darker than death and weaved of lies


Get rid of the corpse

You've ripped him in half

His sufferings and cries

Must've made you laugh

The rods impaled in his flesh

The crown of mesh

Pieces of skin that it shed

Every place where he bled

Erase all evidence

Of his existence

Burn an incense

And sterilise the fence

The good thing though

abducted was he

The system gets to be

Answer free

Only a dying father he had

In the name of family.


Sure sir it'll be done

Cleaning has already begun

On the list of suspects

We've rounded another one.

She's a woman

Means a lot more fun

We'll detain her too

Not publicly though

Here in the Ghosted Prison


As they sat sipping tea

Said one murderer

He was an innocent boy

Indeed a tea staller

"Man he was a toy"

Laughed the jailer

"No 904

-The Ghosted Prisoner"


....(Part 2) To be Continued


By Ayn Mawaddat (Zainab Shahzad)




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