When I was five I was given over to the state.
I didn’t know what that meant
or why my mother was gone.
One day I was with her,
the next I was not.
I thought I had done something wrong,
but I didn’t know what.
I was so scared
of all the strangers
smiling at me and reassuring me.
I clutched a brown paper bag
full of my comics
and moved from room to room.
Finally I was shown a bed and a locker
and told that this was my new home.
I put my comics in the locker
and lay in bed awake all night,
crying softly to myself,
wondering what I had done wrong.
this is one of my earliest memories. i was adopted when i was seven, but i spent two years as a ward of the state and i was scared and confused most of that time.
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