Homeward Bound

Written by Moazzam Begg whilst in solitary confinement

Begins this journey without reins,
End in capture without aims;
Now lying in the cell awake,
With merriment and smiles all fake:

Freedom is spent, time is up -
Tears have rent my sorrow's cup;
Home is cage, and cage is steel,
Thus manifest reality's unreal

Dreams are shattered, hopes are battered,
Yet with new status one is flattered!
The irony of it - detention, and all:
Be so small , and stand so tall

Years of tear and days of toil
Are now but fears and tyrants' spoil;
Ordainment has surely come to pass,
But endure alone one must this farce

Still the paper do I pen,
Knowing what but never when -
As dreams begin, and nightmares end -
I'm homeward bound to beloved tend.

Moazzam Begg & Victoria Brittain (2006), Enemy Combatant: the terrifying true story of a Briton in Guantanamo