I’ve been waiting for you.

I’ve been asleep for years, chained by
the shame of illegitimacy.
I’ve been drugged - asleep underneath all the
forgeries
and deceptions
and omissions
and alterations
and changed names
and changed dates.

I don’t know all the truth, she whispers.
I can’t tell the past.
But as she breathes in the fresh air,
She is filled with strength.
She is free.

Climb on my shoulders, she shouts.
Hold on. Don’t let go.

I am HOPE.

Anita Walker Field is an adoptee who wrote this poem to recognize the day she held her birth certificate in her hands. Her search continues. She was born on August 6th or 9th, 1937 and was adopted September 11 of the same year.