Adopting a Fourteen-Year-Old in the 21st Century

Teenage girls hate difference, and their mothers.

They want concave bellies, current fashion,

and to fit in. That was my fear, and her other

mom’s: that she might despise our dyke passion,

our wheelchairs, Robin’s speech, my respirator,

or her own awkward tender girl body.

Would the pride we’d model vaccinate her

against surface standards? But she came ready.

She wears mismatched florals, ignores trends,

has bold prints and slogans in her wardrobes.

She brags and introduces us to friends,

oblivious to ableists and homophobes.

She’s nonconformist, even more than us.

“There’s my moms!” she tells the kid beside her on the bus.

Copyright 2010 by Laura Hershey