Heirloom Tomatoes
by Bruce Meyer
White lycopersicum, purple, yellow tomatoes,
even black ones passed off as juicy truffles –
can you think of anything more beautiful
as a gift to bequeath an only daughter
so she will know how to scatter seeds,
how to partake of what could live forever,
to cherish what she cannot grasp for death,
the things she loves but must leave behind,
the way one loves a garden beneath snow
or an ancestor born under a long lost flag?
Bruce Meyer is author of 45 books of poems, short fiction, and non-fiction. His most recent books are A Chronicle of Magpies (stories), The Arrow of Time, Testing the Elements, and The Seasons, which won an IPPY Award in the U.S. and was a finalist for the Indie Fab Award for best book of poems published in North America. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Georgian College and Visiting Professor at Victoria College, U of Toronto. He lives in Barrie, Ontario.
Photo credit: Mark Raynes Roberts.