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BOOKS READ IN 2020: Legend by Marie Lu

don’t feel bad, i’m usually about to die.

what more do you want? 

everything

Making tea is often a tradition that denotes Respect and appreciation for things such as family And marriage. Washing the teacup with boiled water Cleanses your heart and mind, dissipating the yin Collected from your sins. Tea leaves are passed Around to be examined and admired—a picture Of grace. Prosperity and happiness Are meant to be delivered by flipping The tea within two cups, a flow of exchange Between guests that is soon discarded as well. Greed  And jealousy is washed away with the impure water until You are filled with only the richness of yang. The tea you are finally able to drink is signified By something I no longer am sure I understand, Painted by lost cultural significance only My grandparents retain. You echo these motions In an attempt to pass down rituals that matter, And yet none of this feels important to me. I feel as if I grew up to be those tea leaves, Fragrant smells promising the sweetness Of tea, but instead, I am the flavorless water Cast aside because who I am doesn’t Fit into the rigidness of the tradition that Tell me to conform my values to Those of this society.