Tea bag

There’s a little staple on the top fold-over
to hold the string in place. But I’ve
seen bags without that staple, that advertise
the absence of the staple
because it lets you compost the bag, they say.

Inside there’s the standard detritus
mutely visible through the gauzy bag
it looks like red pepper flakes but I know
it isn’t spicy. It makes me think
of the time in Houston at that restaurant
where everyone wore a hat. But that might be
what I’m listening to, too. Am I making sense?

It’s sunk down into the murk now
in the cup. I think it over-steeped
but that’s okay. The flavor is murky too
like a bowerbird’s nest in a mist or a moor.
A misty moor, even. Is moor the right word?