Orange

About a month ago, I busted out my front tooth
during a bar brawl sometime after midnight
and it wasn�t until the next day, over breakfast
that I noticed it was gone.  My eyelids were still heavy but
the nerve endings jolted me as the orange found the empty
space.  I looked in the mirror and saw dried blood on my skin,

on the skin of my cheeks, my chin, and back of my
hand.  Apparently a fist had knocked the tooth loose
or maybe it was a glass full of the orange, fuzzy
navel that I had been drinking that night.
Whatever hit me had been heavy enough to do it
and I was sure that I had gone over the edge.

Somehow, over the span of the evening
I had managed to skin my knuckles as
well as create a heavy sensation in my limbs
that ached almost as much as the empty tooth
space that was now as void as the night sky
itself.  I think I�ll leave those orange drinks

alone for awhile.  Those orange ones
will take you over the line of good judge-
ment if you let them.  It used to be every night
I�d slam them down and turn the skin
around my mouth and my front tooth to
that crazy kinda heavy dark color

of blood.  That�s as heavy a color as any
kinda orange drink can flush a persons
face and it�ll cure any kind of tooth-ache
you got.  However, �one toke over the line,�
is a bad life to lead.  It changes your skin
color for Christ�s sake, as well as your night life.

Unless your nights are generally active
to begin with.  If you like a heavy trip and
you don�t mind your skin changing like
leaves in the autumn that turn orange like
the drinks, and your not about to turn over any
real living, and you don�t mind missing a tooth

or two, then you may as well drink the orange
drink and live the orange life over an over
and go ahead and bust out a tooth or two.
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