Independence

In a windowless prison cell he lay,
Never able to distinguish night from day.
Did the gruel he received regularly suggest
Evening, noon, or morning meal? He is a
Prisoner of an autocratic state!
Each sleep period he relives his arrest;
Not sure if the next repast well be his last.
Dependent on his jailers for mercy, he
Endures silently his disenfranchisement.
No one knows his whispered, unanswered plea
Communicated to the vicious universe
Each waking moment in his jail cell.

Line count:12
Notes: The prompt for this poem was to write an acrostic using a key word of at least 10 letters about the word's opposite.