Homeland Security Agent

Esther Lin

To offer myself as servant to the Lord

of bureaucrats I spring to sacred task:

dismantle the vests and boats of refugees.

For them the word home must be home enough.

My nation rests its feet on little graves;

our kings will not say Syria. Will not say

A boy lies dead on the beach. The foam hardens

around him. His father cannot find him.

His uncle has sunk like a stone. His sister

wanders the wilderness. No, she hasn’t

seen her brother. She lives on fire alone;

her spirit is yet slain. Thus I call

a crusade against my enemy—I

would like to unclothe her of her suffering.

Esther Lin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant for twenty-one years. Her forthcoming book, Cold Thief Place, won the 2023 Alice James Award.
Originally published:
June 10, 2024

Featured

Louise Glück’s Late Style

The fabular turn in the poet’s last three books
Teju Cole

The Critic as Friend

The challenge of reading generously
Merve Emre

Rachel Cusk

The novelist on the “feminine non-state of non-being”
Merve Emre

You Might Also Like

Traveler

Esther Lin

The Afterlife

Jessica Laser


Newsletter

Sign up for The Yale Review newsletter and keep up with news, events, and more.