Marked for Exile

They came at dawn, no warning sound.. Just boots on concrete, bodies bound. A flashing light, a tightened cuff.. No time to scream, no time enough. They scanned my skin, a black ink mark.. A symbol small, but fate was stark. No gang, no crime, no war I waged.. Yet still they locked me in this cage. A land so far, no kin, no face.. Just iron bars and empty space. The echoes hum, the cold walls stare.. A name reduced to numbers there. The air is thick with cries and chains.. A past dissolved in acid rains. I close my eyes, but home’s not near.. Just nights that whisper endless fear. What crime is this? What lie was spun? To steal a life before it’s run? A mark, a stain, that’s all they see.. And now this hell is home to me.