DNA Remembers by Olivia Salter | Poetry

DNA Remembers

By Olivia Salter

You can strip away my given name,
Deny my birthright, stake false claim—
Erase the truth, rewrite the lies,
Yet still, my greatness will survive.

My voice is drowned, my story blurred,
Its verses twisted, lines unheard.
But quiet now, beneath the strains,
A heartbeat stirs; my pulse remains.

Erase the words, distort the tones,
Dismiss the story carved in bones.
Yet histories you cannot see
Run deeper, wilder, endlessly.

Once sold and bought, then stolen still,
Across the waves, against my will,
Yet on each shore, through iron bars,
The fires light beneath my scars.

For roots like mine defy the flame—
A quiet strength without a name.
Each branch bears stories burned, concealed,
But from these depths, my truths are healed.

You paint my culture in your face,
Refashion icons, take their place,
Yet even shadows know the past—
This ancient strength was built to last.

Erase my gods, my faith, my creed,
Break every vow, uproot each seed.
But sacred roots dig fiercely deep,
Beyond your power to unsweep.

And for each freedom torn away,
Each sunken ship, each stolen day,
The roots press further, stretched and wide,
A quiet, unrelenting tide.

You wear our wounds, but never know
The earth beneath where our roots grow.
Though buried, beaten, hushed, or bent,
My blood remembers what you spent.

For centuries of silenced names,
For histories erased in shame—
Yet still we rise, we walk, we stand,
Alive in every breath and hand.

I walk with those who came before,
Who lived and died, endured much more—
In every scar that bears their cries,
Our lineage, like embers, rise.

Beyond the books, the myths, the chains,
Beyond what loss or blood sustains—
A truth survives, unclaimed by greed,
In every spirit, every seed.

So write me out, erase my line,
Redraw my face, reshape the sign—
But I persist through tides and flames,
Reclaiming every stolen name.

And in this blood, I feel the weight
Of all who bore your twisted fate.
Their whispered songs still pulse in me,
A silent, strong infinity.

Each step I take revives the ground,
Each breath, a song of strength unbound.
Through shadows cast by tainted laws,
I rise, untouched by iron claws.

You take, you twist, you bury deep,
But I am more than what you keep.
My legacy is born of pain—
A river time cannot contain.

I bear the memory of chains,
Of barren fields and blood-soaked rains,
Of ancestors whose muffled screams
Now fuel the fire in my dreams.

Erase my name, reshape my lines,
Pretend my story isn't mine,
But here I stand, unbreakable—
My voice as steady as the pull.

And from the soil, from stars and stone,
In pulse and blood, I call my own.
For every shadow hides a light,
A strength that darkness cannot smite.

An anthem buried, yet I sing,
My silent pulse, my reckoning.
For even when the voices fade,
My DNA remains—unfrayed.