“Show Me Your Magic”

Self Care Medicine

by Auntie Asdzaan Nez

They said, show me your magic.
So she climbed to below the summit & retrieved roots that ward off lightening, rattle snakes & sickness.

They said, show me your magic.
So she took a white blossom of bitter flower, chewed it, spat onto a laceration and immediately stopped bleeding.

They said, show me your magic.
So she pulled squared stemmed medicine from the water, brewed it and calmed crying children's nerves to silence and safe sleep.

They said, show me your magic.
So she took a broad leaf from the ravine, blanched it, smoothed it onto skin -pulling infection.

They said, show me your magic.
So she retrieved reeds her people once emerged through billions of years ago and healed an ailing kidney & thinning hair. 

They said, show me your magic.
So she unbound moss from a rock and remedied chronic injury and cramps. 

They said, show me your magic.
So she took broad leaf deer ear tobacco, rolled, tied, dried, then burned it in homes of chronic bronchial suffers, clearing suffering from the air and lungs with which they breath. 

They once called her ancestors witches and savages, prosecuted their wisdom. Outlawed it. 

In this lifetime, this legacy of prosecution and fear endured against her. 

Their intimidation did not allow for recognition that as the system crumbles, it is her and her sister's ways -their ancestors ways- that will return the people back to restoration and symbiosis when urgency gives them no other option but to witness these medicines.

For she, the land, and their partnership, are one in the same.... MAGIC.

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