Keep your Tea Leaves

Assem Bazzi

Photo Editor’s note:

Assem Bazzi’s poem Keep Your Tea Leaves is a nuanced commentary on human history, celebrating modern advancements while questioning the persistence of outdated beliefs. Through vivid language, the poem invites readers to consider the forces shaping our world.

The accompanying photographs were curated to enrich the reader’s understanding, anchoring Bazzi’s words in a historical context. These visuals complement the text and deepen their impact by revealing layers of meaning and inviting fresh interpretations.

Together, the poem and images encourage reflection on the balance between progress and preservation. Bazzi’s work transcends literary boundaries, serving as an educational journey that challenges readers to contemplate our world’s trajectory. The combination of words and visuals provokes thought and invites a deeper exploration, offering an opportunity for learning and discovery, as I experienced.

The momentum of history

Slowly or Hurriedly

Downwards or Upwards

Stumbling or Assuredly

Spiraling or Rhyming

Cannot fully stop…

Penicillin

The eradication of Polio

Vaccines curbing Plagues

The decrease of birth mortalities

Stepping on the moon’s face

Dostoyevsky, Spinoza, Kazantzakis crystallizing god into

a concept interchangeable with

Infinity

Nature

The Humane

Manmade mountains stretching over wastelands to give Shelter

The unlocking of Atoms

M(utually) A(ssured) D(estruction) relegating World Wars into Proxies

The Understanding of Gravity

Peering into the Quantum

Electricity declaring light at the flip of a switch

Monarchies, quaking in their boots, giving out driving licenses

Isis relying on

Youtube

Guerilla and Modern warfare

International supply chains

And AK47s

While preaching goat herding and beheadings

Ice cream

Tomatoes

Pumpkins

Apple products

Grapes

All year round

…

To want instead of need

…

Everyone gets a burger with fries without killing a cow

-Beyond-

“I can’t believe it’s not butter”

Lactose free Milk

The democratization of knowledge

Through abundant literacy

In a multitude of languages

With light-speed global communication

Allowing us to read more than one book

The flexibility of identity

Allowing choice beyond tribalism

Acknowledging self-actualization

As a process

Giving meaning through labor

Instead of lazily inheriting it

To Fly in the Air

with boredom

To Zoom on tracks

faster than Bullets

To suck out

buried

ossified

Titans

for our own movements

Only to replace them with

The harnessing of the Sun’s Power

-Apollo: a Battery for Humanity-

The Promise of a better tomorrow

along with the Weariness of possible pitfalls

Illuminated by an admittance

of Dialectics

A pack of smokes & a cup of coffee

Brought from across the Ocean

To enjoy

While attempting to find ways to combat Human trafficking

Through a screen made by children’s hands

Reading Instantaneous news

Constant floodings

Of Fallout Prophecies

Of the Rise of Populism/Fascism (again)

Of Drowning the world

And acting upon it

Through New Discoveries & Alternatives

Begotten by Desanctifying sources of knowledge

Constant self-critique

& Peer review

Cyber-transcendentalism & Artificial Intelligence

New nightmares with newer dreams

Retrofuturism and infinite poetry

Keep your archaic “holy words”

Keep your “family values”

We, students of Sagan, will attain the cosmos

While you fight over a corner

Bludgeoned beyond recognition

Erasing the world’s heritage

Blockading the world’s potential

For not conforming to the narrative of

Burning Bushes

Water Walking

Flying Horses

And caves filled with angels

Bow down and cow to the whims of a barbaric wrathful patriarch

Fear the wagging finger

Deny, Mutilate, Kill & Bury

Your daughters

-In the name of your familial honor-

As I take mine to the gynecologist

And affirm her right to an orgasm

I spit on your resurrections & ladders

With CPR and escalators

I spit on your Generational guilt

With Psychoanalysis

I spit on your denial of History

With Hegel

I spit on your swords

With the Geneva convention

I spit on your tablets

With the charter of human rights and Russo’s contract

Holy mouth

Holy spit

Holy words

I am the azan

I am the breaking news

I am the letter of prophets

I am the herald of tribunes

I am Man

I am Woman

I am anyone and everyone

in between and beyond

I am the keyboard

I am the call to freedom

I am the call to arms

I am the call to death

I am Industry

I am eco-architecture

I am Modernity

I will dismantle Zionism, Evangelism, and Sharia Law

By Separating every church, mosque, synagogue, and temple from every State

By Enabling and Dreaming of the Global Village made of Cities

We Children of Modernity & Lovers of Whitman will venture to new worlds

While facing every new form of corruption that can arise from them

We will not shy away from your hemlock

We will look forward

As you

dip your noses

in tea leaves.

By Assem Bazzi.

c. 1793–1751 BCE – Basalt stele inscribed with the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest legal codes established in Babylon. Housed at the Louvre Museum, Room 227. Photo by Rama, on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR), modified.

1762 – Title page of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Social Contract," which transformed political thought and shaped modern ideas about governance and individual rights. Image courtesy of SciELO, on Wikimedia Commons.

1864 – The signing of the first Geneva Convention marked the beginning of modern humanitarian law, establishing key principles for the protection of human dignity in times of war. Painting by Charles Édouard Armand-Dumaresq, on Wikimedia Commons.

1910 – A staged double exposure of Nikola Tesla in his Colorado Springs lab with his “Magnifying Transmitter,” designed to experiment with wireless power transmission. Photo by Dickinson V. Alley. Courtesy of Wellcome Collection (CC BY 4.0).

1926 – Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, whose theories on the unconscious mind, dream analysis, and the psyche shaped modern mental health practices. Photo by Ferdinand Schmutzer on Wikimedia Commons.

1933 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin in flight above the Pyramids of Giza. Photo courtesy of Keystone View Company, part of the Bettmann Archive, on Wikimedia Commons.

1943 – The penicillin mold, crucial to the discovery of antibiotics, was presented by Alexander Fleming to Douglas Macleod. On display at the Science Museum Group. Photo by The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum Group, courtesy of Christie’s South Kensington Limited. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

1946 – The “Baker” explosion was the first underwater nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, part of Operation Crossroads. It created a massive mushroom cloud and widespread contamination. Photo by the U.S. Department of Defense, on Wikimedia Commons.

1950 – Dr. Charles Malik, a Lebanese philosopher and diplomat pivotal in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stands with Hartford Seminary students. His UN contributions shaped global humanitarian principles. Photo courtesy of United Nations, on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

1969 – Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks near the Lunar Module ‘Eagle’ during the first moonwalk. Photo by Neil Armstrong, courtesy of NASA on Wikimedia Commons.

1957 – Children in Sweden receiving vaccinations during a nationwide effort to combat polio. Photo by Örebro Kuriren, part of Örebro läns museum collection, on DigitaltMuseum.

1977 – The Voyager Golden Record, developed under the guidance of Carl Sagan, was designed to convey humanity’s message to extraterrestrial civilizations. It includes 116 images, music, and greetings in 55 languages. Photo courtesy of NASA, on Flickr.

1994 – CERN physicist Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web (launched in 1991), led the development of HTML, HTTP, URLs, and the first web server and browser. Photo courtesy of CERN.

1997 – The Shinkansen 500 series, introduced by JR West, is renowned for its sleek design and speeds up to 300 km/h, setting a new standard in high-speed rail technology. Photo by Takeshi Kuboki on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

2005 – Barrett Lyon’s Opte Project maps the internet’s global network, visualizing its density and the complex connections driving modern communication, to better understand the structure of the web. Map by Opte Project, on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5).

2007 – Steve Jobs announces the first iPhone at the Macworld keynote in San Francisco. Photo by Arnold Kim, courtesy of Blake Patterson on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

2007 – Astronaut Scott Parazynski repairs a damaged ISS solar panel during the STS-120 mission to ensure the station’s power supply. Photo Courtesy of NASA, on Wikimedia Commons.

2013 – Roboy, developed by the AI Lab at the University of Zurich, is a humanoid robot designed to advance research in human-like movement and rehabilitation. Photo by Adrian Baer, courtesy of Devanthro Society, on Wikimedia Commons.

2014 – In Beirut, a protester holds a sign reading “What if she was your daughter?” during a rally on International Women’s Day. Led by KAFA, the protest demanded legal reforms after a series of brutal domestic murders. Photo courtesy of Cynthia Ghoussoub.

2014 – ISIS used social media, particularly YouTube, to spread propaganda and recruit fighters. Their videos promoted a 'heroic' narrative to attract and radicalize supporters. Screengrab from Al Jazeera English's video on Youtube.

2016 – A sample of The Impossible Burger, a plant-based innovation by Impossible Foods, first introduced to the public during promotional events. Photo by Dllu on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

2020 – Electron microscopic image of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The spikes give the virus its name, “corona,” meaning crown. Image by Cynthia S. Goldsmith and A. Tamin, courtesy of CDC, PHIL.

2020 – On March 4, Greta Thunberg urges the European Parliament’s environment committee to adopt a science-based Climate Law for carbon neutrality by 2050. Photo by European Parliament on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

2023 – Devastation in Hatay following the powerful Gaziantep-Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, which struck southeastern Turkey with magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5. Photo by Hilmi Hacaloğlu, courtesy of Voice of America, on Wikimedia Commons.

2023 – At COP28 in Dubai, global leaders at the Net Zero Nuclear Event discussed tripling nuclear energy by 2050 to achieve net-zero emissions, a critical step in addressing climate change. Photo by Dean Calma, courtesy of IAEA Image Bank on Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Assem Bazzi

Assem is a Lebanese poet who has been contributing to the Beirut poetry performance scene since the summer of 2011. Performing in street corners, local bars, and the occasional theater stages, he has participated in numerous poetry events, including ones curated by The Poetry Pot, Poetic License, Pen Lebanon, and Haven for Artists. Bazzi is also a founding member of el-Yafta poetry circle. He has contributed to the literary travel guide book “Beirut Guide for Beirutis,” and has a poetry book published by Barzakh titled “From Martyr to Rat.”