On the Tomato
Brief Vaudevillian Hypotheses Apropos of This Androgynous Fruit
1
Behold the hero of the vegetable patch
a modest American marvel
with the face of a Chinese lantern.
2
Sheer light made of water:
a fleeting heart, pumping
muted cries of jubilation.
3
Her fancy dress, her festive
fantasy of red confirms a doubt:
she’s a lady tossed in the salad by mistake.
16
A tomato rots: here lies
a misfortune greater
than the fall of an empire.
39
Voluptuous little flag:
he makes every dry spell
fresh.
41
To sink one’s finger into
its soft flesh: a crime or copulation
as vague as your idea of bliss.
44
A tomato crosses the river
on a moonless night:
becomes a plum.
55
(Mark Twain)
A salad can be an anthem to joy
but the proof
is in the tomato.
60
To bite into a tomato thinking
of nothing: so the peak
of summer will burst in your mouth.
64
Columbus’s was egg
and prophecy: America
is a tomato under sail.
66
A tomato was raised
by two elderly lemons:
now it’s a sweet tangerine.
75
And yet, there is no more
voracious love than that of salt
searching for it on the plate.
97
The taste of tomato
remembered: the damp
face of a barefoot child.
translated from the Spanish by Cindy Schuster
