Roots

I went to climb my family tree

to find out how I came to be.

The branches nearly reached the stars,

and some of them were deeply scarred.

From kings and queens and royalty,

to bought and sold and poverty.

And then I made my way back down,

mesmerized by what I’d found.

All those lives and memories

alive and well inside of me.

For what I thought were merely veins,

are really roots that broke the chains.