By Chandler Wakefield
We come in pieces of burlap knapsacks
from Trader Joe’s made into dolls.
We come as shoes worn and worn through,
T-shirts from foreign sports teams
that none of the kids know. We come as NGOs
fighting foreign foes we funded in the first place.
We come as woke high schoolers
fixing a basketball court destroyed by a
stealth bomber. A child walks up to me,
looks at me, asks “Who are you?”
I grin and tell her I’m here to help,
then go back to pouring gravel into a hole.
I don’t tell her what my name is.
I don’t tell her what I’ve taken from her.
Chandler Wakefield is a first-year in Grace Hopper College. Contact him at Chandler.Wakefield@yale.edu.