loyd.net

It was an honest mistake!
Anybody could have done it—
At least anybody from earth.
When NASA discovered the orange in earth orbit,
They thought it was, well,
An orange.
After all, it was round,
And the correct shape and size,
And the color was, of course,
Orange.

I'm not entirely sure of the facts,
Whether it was the astronaut who discovered it,
Or some administrator after it was returned
(Returned?)
To earth.
But someone took a bite—
It reportedly was quite juicy.
Unfortunately, though,
This innocent action killed the ambassador,
The representative sent to earth,
The envoy from the planet
Of intelligent oranges.

The oranges, naturally,
Were rather offended by this hostile action.
So we now were preparing a delegation to visit their planet,
To make a formal apology,
To try to establish normal relations
Lest they attack.

Considering how rudely we had murdered their ambassador,
They were quite gracious.
They welcomed our delegation,
They accepted our apology.
It was so strange seeing their world.
There were crowds of oranges,
Normal looking oranges,
Except they could move somehow.
They weren't giant oranges,
Or oranges with legs and arms.
They looked exactly like ordinary oranges.
They somehow could communicate,
Telepathically I suppose.

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