By Amanda Meeker

O Dokdo,
you romantic island,
you desire understanding
like everyone else.
You seek belonging.
You want to belong
to your birth family.
You are tired of the legal hassle
and of documents that tell you
who owns you,
who has rights to you.
You do not want to be adopted;
you want to be the legitimate child
of Joseon.

The writer is a Korean-American poet who was adopted in her age and received her master’s degree in professional writing and editing from George Mason University.