A Poem

For All the Little Girls From China
by Penny Callan Partridge

Whenever I see one
I know there will someday be
this incredible sorority
of women brought here
as babies from China.

And their Great Wall
will always go all the way
through them to split
what happened in China/
what’s happened here.

But they will help each other
over this wall all their lives
until those walls at their
centers are merely their
strong and flexible spines.

Maybe on the basis of
collective cultural hybrid
strength which they’ll
find many ways to cultivate
(the strength of their stories!)

these women of the world’s
first international female diaspora
will inherit the earth.
And do something good with it.

I met Penny at the American Adoption Congress Conference last April, and loved her poetry. She's an adoptee and an adoptive mom.

I was particularly struck by the line, "the world's first international female diaspora." Definitely food for thought.