Define Family

Define Family
as an adoptee losing my first parents to China’s One Child Policy. 
Overpopulation led a country to enact fees on every additional baby. 

Define family as an adoptee encouraged to create a family tree.
Confusion as my peers drew cards for a day designated solely 
to a father that didn’t exist for me. 

Define family
when my adoptive parents raised me culturally. 
Two lesbian women planned accordingly. 
I grew up with books filled with Chinese customs and imagery. 
They were preparing me to enter the world having some sense of identity. 

Define family
when one of my adoptive mothers, suddenly,
was taken by a sickness that overpowered her body
and is now just a blurry  figure in my memory. 

Define family 
When my mother and I didn’t look similarly 
and the perpetrators of the violence against Asian communities 
look like the woman I grew up calling “mommy.” 

Define family
when the person I love isn’t yet out officially. 
I am known as her bestie. 

Define family for me. 
Defining family, for me,
is whatever I choose it to be.

Poem by Anica Falcone-Juengert (she/they) | Connect on Instagram