It’s tough being an apple on an orange tree
when it is a red one to orange many.
The oranges said, “Red and orange are close cousins,
try to lessen your fiery passion
and not smell so applely pungent.
Blend into our orange citrus quotient.”
Though the oranges insist,
the apple can’t help being what it is.
So it rolls off the orange tree
upon the ground alone and free;
whereupon a passing child
looks at the shiny, red apple with a smile.
He picks it up and takes a bite,
rolls his eyes heavenward with great delight.
“Ummm... What a fabulicious, juicy apple red
just beneath an orange tree!” he said.
And the apple was happy to have gone this way.
The oranges’ words did not hold sway.
For heaven knows even if it had tried and tried,
it would never have succeeded being one of the orange tribe.
Poet Douglas Kearney and composer/producer/drummer Val Jeanty link up for a a compelling LP that feels like the written word come to life. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2021