{"id":2613,"date":"2026-08-31T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2026-09-12T17:51:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T17:51:59","slug":"tomato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2613","title":{"rendered":"Tomato"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In these Tariff Times, I can afford but one tomato.
An heirloom varietal, hunted and gathered from the market.

This vessel of August was meant to serve for family dinner; 
but I find myself washing it, 
polishing the ridged orb it with a linen towel, 
carrying it to the counter to dispatch before noon.

I slice it with tender strokes, cautious as so not 
to catch and drag ragged edges in the skin with my knife pull.
Five wagon wheels and a perky stemmed pumpkin-ribbed top.

Gathering my wee pinch pot crystal bowl 
mounded gently with flaked Maldon sea salt,
I pour greedy glugs of festival-winning olive oil from a cruet.
Tomato rounds in front of me carry the essence of late summer,
of warm rains and searing heat, tossed by house-shuddering storms 
and a testament to surviving the footprints of bugs and butterflies.

I palm the first heavy piece, 
I slurp it into my mouth as if a soft shell oyster.
While the briny minerals melting off the salt 
and her pinky-clear juices keep the ocean on my mind,
the earthy sweetness of soil-grown fruit 
soon commands my attention.

The flecks of Tellicherry pepper 
and floral swirls of first-press olives
create the kind of concerto that only beckons 
from instruments crafted of the finest raw materials.

I pause to call my family down to join me, but words fail.
Since my mouth is ajar already, I slot in one more tomato,
and then another, and then another. 
I leave the top on the board; I can be generous.
\"There's a bit of tomato left!\" I call out.

= = = 

August lingers on my tongue;
may it keep me warm 
and light-filled as autumn knocks.




<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cTomato,\u201d an account of a crime of passion, written Monday, August 31, 2026 poem 243 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: “Essence of Summer, heirloom tomato with salt and oil on board,”  by Diana Ludwick \u00a9 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2126,262,2130,2358,311,200,1572,2,2129],"tags":[2687,1699,2184,2677,2680,2681,2683,1846,2678,2672,2686,2620,2675,2684,2682,2674,2679,134,2685,2673,2676,2688],"class_list":["post-2613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-culinary","category-dry-humor","category-eating-and-drinking","category-food-tourism","category-generational","category-humor","category-of-place","category-poems","category-recipes-for-life","tag-afford","tag-attention","tag-august","tag-autumn","tag-earthy","tag-essence","tag-family-dinner","tag-farmers-market-2","tag-floral","tag-heirloom-tomato","tag-in-these-tariff-times","tag-late-summer","tag-lingers","tag-noon","tag-pumpkin","tag-raw-materials","tag-soil-grown","tag-summer","tag-tariff-times","tag-tellicherry-pepper","tag-tongue","tag-varietal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2613"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2679,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions\/2679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}