Poem
Mirror, Mirror
Until I found them, the mirror reflected only me to me.
The large intense eyes, those tiny ears with no upper rim,
that protruding bottom lip, the square jaw and pointed chin,
those eyebrows that arch without effort,
provoking envy in girls and women.
Who do I look like? I asked the mirror often.
For thirty-three years, the mirror could not reply.
Now, it reveals the family's teensy ears,
my birth mother's slightly gapped teeth, the curl of my uncle's hair,
my birth father's egg-shaped head, the pug of my nephew's nose,
my father's flared nostrils, the point of my cousin's chin,
my grandmother's under bite, the reddish hue in my sisters' skin.
I see the future there as well.
Still, some features belong to me alone,
but now they command my focus no more.
For the first time in my life, I see my people in me.
Excerpted from Fumbling Toward Divinity: The Adoption Scriptures copyright
2005 by Craig Hickman on sale at Amazon.com.
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