Sweet Tea, No Ice

 
It must be that imagination has an expiration date.
My grandmother will never change the amount of sugar
in her sweet tea.
She wouldn’t dream of rearranging the plants on her patio.
She can’t accept that the creeks she knew as a child have dried up.
That the fish her father once caught,
can now only be found in the state over.
It would be easy to live in a beautiful youth.
And if every memory was painted by
growth,
how could you imagine memories painted by death?
Which is all your granddaughters will know.
A world of fire and plague.
She pleads seniority.
I plead for the chance to reach seniority.
I will sit with her on the patio,
holding a glass of tea,
watching as it melts the ice.
I will show her the two worlds I imagine.
The first is a world where vibrational frequencies have finally been decoded,
and giant speakers can be wired to trigger the release of natural plant insecticides.
Halting dead zones. Increasing food supply.
We might last.
By showing her the other world, I scare her.
I show her where we are headed.
I tell her “Even your Bible will burn.”
I tell her that one day she will look down
and see the soot on her hands,
the matches clenched in her fist.

 
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Exegesis
 

This piece was inspired by my experience growing up in a place that loves the Earth but does not believe in global warming. The culture of the South involves the appreciation for nature, and also the appreciation of simplicity. The simplicity of changing nothing and living life how you always have. This can be such a beautiful lifestyle when it means no phones, fishing in Appalachia, and drinking tea that immediately gives you a sugar high. I wanted to include that feeling in my piece, this feeling of beauty that influences everyone in these areas. I then wanted to lead you into how this can be such an issue. How conflicting it can be to have conversations about change with the people you love and respect, but do not fully understand. There comes a point when frustration consumes you, and in the case of this piece, my frustration is at the people who want to live in the beautiful, simple past, because it means they do not believe, or don’t want to believe, the world has been changing. This lack of regard for the future is ignorance. It is a lack of imagination, because you cannot understand the world looking any different, even if it’s a positive change.

In line 18, I introduced a more recent scientific discovery that I have been obsessed with this past year. Vibrational frequencies have begun to be decoded, and mean much more to plants than we originally thought. Caterpillar movements spur certain plants to excrete a natural chemical as a defense mechanism. If humans can figure out how to replicate this movement through vibrational frequencies, then we may have a chance to use vibrations to eliminate at least one form of pesticide, and hopefully more down the road. The possibilities in this discovery are endless, and if we can eliminate pesticides, we would stop some of the contamination of the Mississippi River. We could stop the dead zones in the ocean that occur from harsh chemicals, and that kill all life that needs Oxygen. To me, this discovery is the beginning of something that could be incredible, it just will take some imagination. By including actual science in this piece, I wanted to emphasize that this isn’t unrealistic. This is something that has promise all over the world, along with plenty of other discoveries. It is easy to fall into Climate Doomism, where there seems to be no hope for our future, when in fact it is just going to take a lot of creative people getting innovative.

This piece is meant to make you feel empathy, because most people love someone who may not understand the severity of climate change. It’s important to educate those around us of the science that tells us the atmosphere has changed. That the stakes are higher. It’s important to emphasize that if we are creative and push towards a better future, it is possible. Hope is necessary for any form of change. This piece is also supposed to make you feel scared. We live in a world that praises consumerism, conspiracy theories, and nostalgia, all of which have little place in this fight. A lot of uncomfortable conversations are ahead of us, but are needed to invoke any form of awakening. You are either the one holding the match, or the one burning. Do not be selfish at the expense of the world.