Tea and Persian History, by Clarissa Simmens

Women Around A Samovar, by Isma’il Jalayir (Persia) 1860-75

Tea and Persian History
Wading Through Time
 
Last week I time-traveled
But my memory faded almost instantly
I remember drinking tea and
Having my fortune read by tasseomancy
It was the 1860s
One hundred years before
I would break out of
Shyness and autism
Becoming a radical hippie
Forgive the digression, dear reader
Maybe I should start
With my love of Persian art
When a friend sent me a painting
By Isma’il Jalayir
Women Around a Samovar
(Popular name according to
The Victoria and Albert Museum)
I do love samovars
And Gran taught me how to read
Tea Leaves
So I gazed at the amazing women
In their long dresses
But on the left is one
Wearing a short skirt
And I think
How can this be?
Who is she?
Reminiscent of me
Dark, curly hair
Not pretty but a certain ancient beauty
And I wonder if she is an ancestor
Triggering genetic memory
Then I notice
All the women are dressed oddly
An alternate title of the painting is
Women Dancing Around A Samovar
And one writer feels they are a harem
Perhaps being entertained by a ballet troop
I look for a tasseomancer
Reading their leaves
I move among them,
Invisible,
In my time machine
Here is one with a pipe
And the aroma of cherry wood
Drifts among the bamboo bouquet
Of Lapsang Souchong
One of my favourites
I look at the women
Who strangely seem wooden
And find myself trying
To become visible to the one
In the blue skirt
Perhaps she was descended from family
When India exiled the Roma
In the 11th Century
Is she a great, great, great aunt of mine?
The Romani diaspora
Carried families to all parts of Asia and Europe
Perhaps she was from a family
Of tea leaf readers
Or
Part of the harem
Once captured by the Ottomans
While they warred with Vlad the Impaler
In the wilds of Roumania and Hungary
Birthplace of my father
I get as close as possible
Sniffing her cup of tea
As she drinks rapidly
Wanting to hear her future
Or impart one to others
But then the darkness swirls
And the 21st Century
Drags me back
And I am left with the painting
On my computer screen
So I brew a cup of
Bamboo-laden
Russian Caravan Tea
To see
Where the Time machine
Will next carry me…

​Clarissa Simmens
​
Clarissa Simmens holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and various practitioner certificates in Herbal Studies (first learned from her Grandmother), Traditional Chinese Medicine, and G-Jo Acupressure.  She makes her home on the edge of a small swamp in Florida as a drabarni (cartomancer and herbalist.