"Fat Water" Tomatl - Angela Barber (Lincoln, Nebraska)
The passive, ripening fruit
suspended in the sunlight,
draws in from all sides.
Stem from
vine from
stalk from
roots from
fungi from
soil from
worm from
rock, leaves, roots.
Inner passages taking in and
redistributing the remains of our days.
Outside the "plump thing with a naval" (xitomatl)
basks in the sun,
thin skin touched by rays,
passing particles dusting the surface,
absorbed in the mix of
expanding flesh.
Transformation of color
beckons the curious to
touch, taste, and
receive the whole process.
Over and over this
continuous loop of life
provides more than we could ask for or
imagine, naturally.
At home, fruits continuously
give from their abundance.
Here in the plains,
removed from continuous heat,
tomatoes drop from the vine,
and held in the earth,
undeterred by the cold,
wait for the signal to begin again.
*In the process of looking for the technical name of the belly button of the tomato, I learned from The National Gardening Association's website garden.org that tomatoes are believed to originate in Peru and Mexico where they were called tomatl literally meaning "fat water" in the Nahuatl language. The Axtecs cultivated a new species, the red or yellow fruit, and called it xitomatl that translates to "plump thing with a naval". Another website helpful in this search was the Nahuatl Dictionary found at https://nahuatl.uoregon.edu