The burden of identity

I am fragmented I come from pieces that forced themselves together Only to create a puzzle that isn’t assembled quite right A distorted picture Left with the burden of compiling an identity with parts that I don’t like Parts that cause me so much shame bc they come from so much pain My parents saw themselves in me And sought to destroy that image Generational trauma seeping through the bloodline Leaving me as the total package, baggage and all- Thought if I cut my self from the source I can stop the hate Destroy all traces of my lineage And burn them away to ashes Like my ancestors before me- But this time I am the prosecutor and The executioner And I have committed myself to exile Cut myself from the family tree Hacked away at the branches until I remained nothing but a stub Scratched away at the earth with my fingers trying to rip the rotting roots out- Left myself in the whole I dug hoping to dissolve back into the earth. And maybe to one day regrow To reemerge as something beautiful