Tea Leaves and Barbed Wisdom

For the mysterious
And the comely,
We carry tea leaves
and barbed wisdom.

The link between what is known
And what cannot be known -
The secret of ethnicity
Basking unobtrusively
And jarringly in our veins

Underneath eyelids
And noses and brows,
Digging deep
In the crevices on our tongues,
Causing a skip or a slur
That pinpoints an ancestor
Or a way of life.

Let us open our eyes
To discover dust mites
And things left forgotten
In the attics over our heads
But never forget -

For the mysterious
And the comely,
We carry tea leaves
And barbed wisdom.