The Coffee Trade
To Remember the Families Destroyed, Displaced, and Disappeared for the Sake of a Bean.
"Coffee saves lives" seems cute on a plaque on a wall on a whim in your kitchen or your favorite shop or a t-shirt your best friend picks out for you, but I've never been to any place where that's the whole story. Has that same best friend or an older brother or funny dad ever stood with you near the edge of something and waited until you eased and settled and relaxed your knees and maybe leaned to get a better look, and then they push! and you fall so they can grab you and inform you that they just saved your life. However, you still feel the panic and adrenaline from moments before, and now cortisol sets in, and you remember your studies on the detriments of stress to your health, and you wonder how much time you just lost, and you're still on that ledge with your "savior."
About the Creator
kp
I am a non-binary, trans-masc writer. I work to dismantle internalized structures of oppression, such as the gender binary, class, and race. My writing is personal but anecdotally points to a larger political picture of systemic injustice.
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Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insight
Eye opening
Niche topic & fresh perspectives
181 Keeping Watch
Each day she watched through her window. Watched? Perhaps an exaggeration: a monochromatic nuclear aftermath remaining of the world, blurring into a blindness--loss of contrast and depth of field. Achromatic aberrations displayed a waste-scape stratified in grays.
By Gerard DiLeo4 days ago in Fiction
Comments (5)
Wow! This felt like a thought experiment that many of us fail to see. Well done!
Whoaaa, that blew my mind! It was so profound and thought provoking!
Very clever. You’re right about the cortisol pumping through your veins.
The amount of reckless exposure and resource exploitation is beyond comprehension for me sometimes. I will not accept that life is disposable.
I am willing to give up pretty much anything that causes human suffering or our planet's demise. Soon, there won't be much to choose from except what we can grow ourselves. Important piece.