Dilemma

I'm not sure which I like better --
Pumpkins or tomatoes --
Tomatoes,
When you pull your fingers
Across their plump smooth surfaces,
Squeak like glass --
Pumpkins,
When you lie on your back
And set them on your stomach,
Are a comforting weight --
Tomatoes are fragrant and firm and pliant --
Pumpkins, hard and cool and bright --
Tomatoes are summer,
Steaming hotly in the garden's black earth
Under wilting leaves
Over tarry railroad ties --
Pumpkins are fall,
Steaming chillily at sunset in lumpy, level fields
While telephone poles, chained together,
March blackly across the horizon --
Tomatoes burst tart and sweet at the back of your mouth --
Pumpkins fill your tongue, bitter and sweet, firm and soft
Or crunchy toasted seeds burn your tongue saltily --
While tomato seeds slide wetly down your throat, easily

Fall 1993