National Poetry Month: Tomato

Nope, I don't eat tomatoes, but I was captivated by this poem.

In honor of National Poetry Month, because we can never have enough good poetry in the world.

 Tomato

     Tomato in my salad bowl

     Is all there is.

     Big as a watermelon,

big as the art,

big as my mind.

     Glistening, shining, with

time's still rush,

     We're locked together

for this part of eternity,

     Tomato and me.

     I feel taken into

the cherry roundness,

     orange redness,

it's fact of existing.

     I've never known

a tomato

quite like this.

     This could go on a long time,

     It's so compelling.

     I'm becoming a tomato,

     Tomato me.

     Who'll blink first, me or tomato?

     It is said that

"Freedom is not needing to know what comes next."

     I eat it.

     Then,

I notice a leaf of lettuce.

--Donald Rothberg

Image by Muffet, at Flickr, used under a Creative Commons License.