‘One and Only’ by Edythe Haendel Schwartz

October 29, 2015: China renounces its 35 year old one-child policy, but strict controls continue
despite the change.

The Party rules our wombs,
with Orwellian coercion–
forced abortion, sterilization.
Infant girls cry from tombs.

What if a one and only
were to suffer an untimely
death? Shido shido shido-
a million pitied shido parents now

with little security, meager rights
to enter homes for elder care
or buy a burial plot.
I am a one and only, bear

the weight. I sing my grievances
in silence, fear surprises–

Edythe Haendel Schwartz is the author of two collections, “A Palette of Leaves,” Mayapple Press, 2012, and “Exposure,” Finishing Line Press, 2007. Awards include a 2015 Pushcart Prize nomination, First Prize in the 2012 Friends of Acadia Competition, and finalist for the 2012 Eric Hopper DaVinci Eye Award. Her poems appear widely in journals and anthologies, including Amoskeag, Calyx, Cave Wall, Earth’s Daughters, Spillway, PMS, Natural Bridge, Poet Lore, Potomac Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Cider Press Review, and Water-Stone, among others.

Featured Image: Mrs. Liu fled from China to escape a forced abortion. She gave birth to her baby in Los Angeles on Dec. 2, 2011. (Jenny Liu/The Epoch Times)