Days Like These, a poem by a Volunteer
Days Like These
By Rebecca Hamilton
On days like these
when all I want
is to curl up
under the drooping mosquito net
to lose myself in fantasies
of ice cubes and sharp cheddar
I go for a walk.
I pass a woman bent
under the weight of a load
twice her size
her breath rises
in clean, white puffs
like the kitchen smoke that
lies low over the valley.
A man chants
I smell whisps of incense
morning gratitude.
The sun finally reaches
the eastern slope of the Himalayas
their vast snow fields glow
beckoning
stretching their golden arms.
At my house, father squats
before a sputtering fire
his thin, green sweatpants
cling to his knobby knees
chiya?
he hands me a steaming cup
milky, sweet, spicy.
On days like these
a cup of tea
can change my world.
Peace Corps held a poetry contest in 2015 that received more than 800 submissions from Volunteers in the field and returned Volunteers. Rebecca Hamilton’s poem was the winner in the Peace Corps Volunteer Category. Hamilton is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal.