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Tea Regime
By Sam Armstrong
Teen Scribe
Editor’s Note: In
submitting this, Sam said: “I recently wrote this piece comparing
making a cup of tea to brutal war tactics. I couldn’t think of two more
opposite things to compare, but in the end I guess I found a lot of
similarities to their processes! Hope you enjoy it. Oh, and I used a
fictional name for a general in my piece. It is not a subtly political
move to speak out against any current warfare.” He added that while he
submitted it as part of a final portfolio for Creative Writing (he’s a
student at Ball State University), it was an impromptu idea that he had
been “chewing on” a little bit.
General Gunter,
We have watched you staring at your maps for days. You’ve planned out
battle strategies and made bold treks across our peppermint mountains
to claim our territory, asserting your strength even as the lights in
your own bunker begin to wane flicker. We watched in horror as you
quietly made your cup of tea, carefully selecting which flavor would
most adequately diminish the personality of the placid water in your
cup. So you dropped the crushing tea bag into the clear water, infusing
your own dark regime into the liquid, asserting a new taste, which
instantly began to dominate the water around it. We watched as the tea
leaves stretched out their gaseous tentacles, killing all memory of the
innocent water that was slowly but steadily choked up in the depths of
the murky waters in your cup. And once that water was completely
eradicated, our worst fears came true as we saw you serve that tea to
your future generations, imploring them to see the genius and
mastermind behind your carefully-planned blend of tea leaves. And they
swallowed up that regime like so many confused visionaries, steeping
your morals and your flavors with their own ideologies. Thus your cup
of tea will live on even after all of the lights in your bunker finally
fizzle out, after the very last drop of your tea has marched down the
rebellious throat of the very last protestor, because the memory of our
peaceful water will be erased, and all to satisfy your cravings, your
own selfish needs and commands. I wonder, General: will the caffeine
allow you to sleep at night, knowing the destruction you’ve stirred up
in your countless cups of “peaceful” Chamomile? How much longer will
this tea regime continue to cloud our water and muddy our cups? How
much longer will you allow this tea to steep?
- X
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