Tangerine was her truth
and tangerine her hair
and many were the toughies
who backed into her fire.

Most were but flickers
that lifted to her smoke,
the one I grew to care about
she burned with lines of coke.

Then glanced a tangerine glower
and shed an orange pride
and conjured the toughest boy of all
to push my love aside.

 

First published in Prairie Schooner.