Up the Staircase Quarterly: The tomatoes had gone

Thank you to Up the Staircase Quarterly for publishing “The tomatoes had gone” in their Winter Issue (#72) alongside the illustration “Rooster of Peace” by Ukrainian artist Josephine Florens (below. )

The tomatoes had gone

all fallen, puckered,
slick lipstick post-ripe red
and I gather them anyway

in my green plastic tote. Blue rubber boots
on wet pine mulch, me and my
rust-stained gloves

harvest the aborted, the raisined, do you know
from even the bird-beak-poked
some can be saved.

​Though most will likely surrender
utility to their seeds.