01/26/2025
“She Was Here First”
She was here first
A wild west untamed bloom,
Brown and black hues carrying the soil, the sun,
The unbroken lineage of a land stolen yet alive.
She was the first to walk these plains,
The first to bless this ground with song and seed,
The first to braid stories into the wind,
To hold the mountains like a mother’s loving hand.
She was here first.
And yet they come
With cuffs, with chains,
Dragging them onto planes,
With no permission, only border lines
Drawn into dust.
Oh, how familiar this feels
But she remembers.
They raid, they take,
They shatter families and names.
But she rises,
An untamed bloom,
Wild with the knowing that her spirit,
Raging like wildfire,
Refuses to be extinguished
She belongs to this land, and it to her
Not borrowed, but bound.
The trees remember her.
The canyons echo her song.
The rivers dance when she steps near.
This land knows.
It remembers her name
Because she was the first one here.
This is her West,
Her unbroken expanse of justice and resistance,
Where the wild grows fierce and free.
She knows she was always here, before thee.
The few that flee on their own terms
Carry her memories with them.
The world may have forgotten all that she has done,
But I am calling on my ancestors
To guide them through it all,
So they will weep no more
And be welcomed with open arms.
Let us remember
In her footsteps, we all walk.
Immigrants on the land she first called home.
Poem: Cayatanita
Piece: Tanita Blooms
Collection: Wild Emerald Blooms
Prints Available: Cayatanita.com
As Always, Peace, Love and Plenty of Coconut Oil! 🌴
