PJ Harvey - Medicinals

I was walking through the National Mall

thinking about medicinals and how they used to grow there

when the ground was a marshland, undisturbed by human hands,

and I heard their voices;

the sumac said, We are always here

the witch hazel – We are always here

the sassafras – We are always here

bluestem grasses – Always here.

I looked about, what did I see?

Medicinals growing around me rising from the gravel.

The sumac and the witch hazel, come to soothe our pain, our sores

come to soothe our troubles.

The sumac said, We are always here

the witch hazel – We are always here

the sassafras – We are always here

bluestem grasses – Always here.

But do you see that woman

sitting in the wheelchair

with her Redskins cap on backwards

and her plastic bags swinging –

from inside a paper wrapper

she sips from a bottle

a new painkiller

for the native people.