Land of green sage and blueberry skies
I have loved you in every season
From blizzards to heat waves
Watching your lizards in the sun
sage-grouse dancing in your folds
Pronghorn stepping gently across your skin
Cougar tracks high on your mountainsides
Newly hatched birds nesting on your skin
as fragile as the quiet

You have shared some secrets with me
And so I know you
And you know me
My tears have soaked into your soil
My snot is smeared on your rocks
My blood has dripped into your dirt
You have seen my courage and
My weakness
And my fear

I am the spectrum of humanity passing over you
As we always have
cold hearts and warm,
broken minds
and pure souls
You are the pathway
Route through the mountains
Snow-gatherer
water giver
Place of deep shadows
and harsh dry winds

I walk your paths
And find stones and bones
rabbit, owl, deer
and shattered human skeletons
Still holding onto those last moments of fear
slipping into eternity as sagebrush whispers prayers back to the dying
the last thing they ever saw was the wind in the ghost pipe
Ancestors of the ones who grow there today
human child and plant child

We say we are here to save the land
But it is you who saves us
we owe you everything
We honor you

And I am afraid for you
greed has come and his ego is bigger
than his heart
He is armed
And dangerous

I have loved you in every season
And I don’t want this to be the last

Photo by Max Wilbert: land at Thacker Pass / Peehee Mu’huh threatened by the planned Thacker Pass lithium mine.

#ProtectThackerPass #ProtectPeeheeMuhuh #LoyaltyToLandAndLife