Apples & Oranges

For centuries and millennia

For years and decades

Apples and oranges —

co-existed

co-habited

co-founded

inheritance

from

the seeds of lineage.

And that basic biology

summed up their basic existences.

Until one day

oranges felt neglected —

overlooked as objects

of seasonal desire

while apples stayed in power,

seated atop an imaginary throne

of assumed superiority.

The oranges had had enough.

It was time they were given

their fair share of respect.

It was justice long overdue.

Oranges wanted an equal say

in the democracy of fruits.

Some apples fought back,

claiming governance is apple pie —

and you don’t make apple pie

with oranges.

The other apples obliged the oranges.

Having an equal say seemed only fair.

The oranges weren’t happy though.

They needed more.

For oranges, you see,

had been neglected throughout history —

and it was high time every orange today

made up for all that had been missed out

by the generations of oranges before.

And once oranges had had everything

surrendered to their will

to make up for the long-lost generations

of the bygone oranges —

only then

could true equality

be ever achieved.

Oranges were tired of being told

they were oranges.

Oranges are the new apples,

decided the oranges.

And the apples just sat watching —

the variety in the differences

of flavours,

of essences,

of beings —

disappear into one bland tasteless tongue.

The throne was long gone,

but the oranges needed a kingdom.

So they built tiaras for each of them,

and named each a queen —

in a reclaimed world

of no kings and no apples.

The slaves

and the workers

and the clergy

were left to the apples —

and the apples alone.

Because oranges were meant to be queens —

each of them, all of them —

as if it were a strange card game

where every hand was an ace,

as if equality wasn’t just a mutation

found in genetic photocopies,

as if genetics could be bent

to the will of oranges

demanding what they feel is just,

as if science was almost a conspiracy

of the apples

to keep the oranges beneath.

Once you have denied science,

it’s hard to agree to evolution.

And once you turn oblivious

to the building blocks of existence,

you’ve written yourself

a free pass to extinction.

Until then,

oranges keep the queendom,

and apples keep the blame.

If you understood the futility of comparing apples and oranges —

You'll know this isn't arson,

it’s autopsy.

And if your curated convictions feel attacked,

congratulations.

You’re still comparing apples and oranges.