Monday, December 15, 2014

Gene McCormick- Poem & Art





Orange Crush:
May To September Summer Romance

1.
Used to be, summers past, mid-day refreshment
meant leveraging a stamped-on metal cap
off a slim-bodied clear-glass bottle of
Orange Crush, improvising with
whatever passed for an opener,
and draining it in one gulp.

2.
Compared to a bottle of caramel-colored
Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke, non-diet, no-caffeine
Orange Crush is a succulent assault
almost too tasty to swallow.
Complementing the flavor, the twenty fluid ounce
plastic bottle is south-of-the-border festive
compared with dark-cloud-grey designed
containers marketed by goliath competitors.
Give Crush props for its see-through plastic body,
modestly if only partially concealing content
with an upper body peel-off wrapper
illustrated by an orange slice squirting
refreshing droplets like rays from the sun.
Bright orange bubbly translucent ounces
show through, unlike opaque bottles of juices,
for Orange Crush contains zero natural juice,
its ingredients including:
high fructose corn syrup, citric acid,
sodium benzoate, acacia and estel gum,
yellow 6, salt and additional makings
sounding unpalatable yet blending
into lively swallows of lip-and-tongue
staining orange coloring (along with
270 calories per bottle).
The ensemble is topped with a
jaunty green plastic screw cap which seems
easier to twist off than Pepsi or Coke.
Maybe not.
Tipping the bottle back—it has a concave
lower body for a sure grip—
to drain the last drops of orange,
thirst is quenched
and the hell with 270 calories. 


Gene McCormick is a writer who paints without preference for either discipline.  His art is in private and commercial collections and he has illustrated a number of books.  He is the illustrator for Misfitmagazine.net.
 

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