4.28.13

Nothing Rhymes with Orange

In school they taught us, “Nothing rhymes with orange,”
and other absolutes: geometry,
the nine planets, and the length of an inch.
Back then, fact was fact. But now I'm thirty-three

and Pluto’s not a planet. Facts can change.
What they told you might not be set in stone.
And changing the inflection of your “orange”
can slant the sounds and play tricks with the tones.

Depending how you say it, the word “orange”
could rhyme “arrange,” and “mange” and “lozenge” too.
Pluto hasn’t jumped its frozen orbit
just because NASA named it something new.

Sounds and planets are always what you make them.
Only learn the rules so you can break them.