Medicinals - PJ Harvey

I was walking through the National Mall

Thinking about medicinals, 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're always here»

The Witch Hazel — «We're always here»

Sassafras — «We're always here»

The bluestem grasses always here

I looked about, and what did I see?

Medicinals grow around me, rising from the gravel

Sumac and the Witch Hazel

Come to soothe our pain ourselves, come to soothe our troubles

The Sumac said «We're always here»

The Witch Hazel — «We're always here»

Sassafras — «We're always here»

Bluestem grass is always here

But do you see that woman, sitting in the wheelchair?

With her Redskins cap on backwards

What’s that she’s singing?

As from inside a paper wrapper

She sips from a bottle

A new painkiller

For the native people