How did they keep them fresh
on the long road
from Samarkand
the golden peaches
destined for the Central Kingdom
for the court and table of the emperor
Xuan Dzang?

I can hear the camel drivers shouting
urging the caravan along
with all due haste
swarthy men
heads wrapped in colored turbans
faces covered
to keep out sand
eager to arrive
with their fine cargo
still intact
the fruit still crisp
fit for an emperor

The Silk Road
if only by its name
provokes a fantasy
of things exotic
enticing merchandise
fabrics fruits furs
loaded on camels
striding single file
across the sandy wastes

I imagine them stopping to drink
to rest and spend the night
at an oasis
a time for entertainment
dancers moving
to the sound
of shrill reed flutes
and high-pitched voices
singing of love and sorrow

All this passes
as they say
before my eyes
while I delight
in the aroma
and the deep
red and gold palette of this fragrant tea
from Fujian Province
that I bought
from Silk Road Teas
whose printed logo
is a camel loaded down
with what must be
the finest Chinese teas
worth surely every penny
of the price

But truly this tea's flavor
and aroma
subtle, exqusite are a world apart
from Liptons
and leave me in awe
thinking of the patient loving care
through millenia of cultivation
in the hands of Chinese farmers
working on the hillsides
in the fields
who doubtless never saw
the rewards their labors merited
never saw or
much less savored
the golden peaches brought from Samarkand
by caravans making their way along
the route so evocatively named
the Silk Road