And We're Home

By Bethany Padron (College)

They represented the foothills, the train tracks, gravel high and waisted, my hands on my hips-flooding Yosemite Boulevard, the line of the valley… rich blessings running up the crevice of California’s soul

drugs and poverty on either side, but we still fought to save our loves – come back home and we will find you again, and again – the forever forgiver, where we tirelessly aimed for better

sidewalks were not the issue, the almond blossoms cried, revive agri-centralized perceptions of love in the grounds, hear our ancestors cry

do not let the train fuel dry, I cried – we are comin’ and goin’ home tonight

I missed her

the Central Valley joining these forces from the treasures of every coastal love, Morro Bay kisses, to the bellies of Jamestown hills, the highs up north where the Redwoods soar, and the lows of the Mojave south, the southern cacti and the Bakersfield fights where we became one, was where the valley tracks met, and I called the clefts of this valley my home

We are home here. Still, we forged the night, two hours to anywhere, bodies of water crisping angular mentions of growth and prosperity, bless - craving the coffee in Cambria

Steeped to stoop, guard your morning, guard your allies and befriend the cows and poppies, protection and liberation from ideologies of sameness, we divert and fight

We make Black life gaze, and all the while, we hum together – wherever the moon sips this porch light

and we cradle babies, lovers and elders, the grounds we ancestrally embody, and cry sorrow onto

It ain’t too late to change, California, we may have shifted our plates, but never our gate of stay and I hold you close, I hold you close while I pray

that you hold my families’ bones in their graves, wherever you sway, and hold our children in light for all skin tones, grafts for all bones, symbols for all stones, access for all homes – be the light we call home - California

We made you blush, get to the grind, and love us, we will take you to our war house, and we will home you in soul, for good.