Tomato Heart

“Too Much” by Laura Lai Konowall

Give me your heart
and I will show you
a dried tomato,
withered from too much
sun;
its seeds shrivelled
from too much exposure to the
heat.

The skin of this tomato
is pinched and thick:
good protection
from the sun and the red rain,
from words and tears.

I suspect there is a whole other life
under this coarse exterior,
but I will never pierce through it
in time to save
the salvageable flesh within.

I think
in our world
we could live without
tomatoes.

---

John RC Potter is an international educator from Canada, living in Istanbul.  He has experienced a revolution (Indonesia), air strikes (Israel), earthquakes (Turkey), boredom (UAE), and blinding snow blizzards (Canada), the last being the subject of his story, “Snowbound in the House of God” (Memoirist). His work has appeared most recently in The Serulian (“The Memory Box”), The Montreal Review (“Letter from Istanbul”) & Erato Magazine (“A Day in May, 1965”).  The author’s story, “Ruth’s World” was a Pushcart Prize Nominee. His gay-themed children’s picture book, The First Adventures of Walli and Magoo, is scheduled for publication.