Greenhouse:

1st Place: Asher Lekki, age 11 

When I see ketchup,

Red tears tumble down like rain.

I’m a tomato.

2nd Place: Lewis Campbell, age 11

Tomatoes are fruit.

No, wait. Are they vegetables?

Well, both can be good.

3rd Place: Sterling Lekki, age 9

You need to ketchup.

Or I am going to win.

I will win the crown.

Funnies:

1st Place: Rick Willmott

Do you know how to      

Fix a broken tomato?

Try tomato paste.

2nd Place: Bryan Franco

A jalapeño

asked a tomato to dance,

and salsa was born.

3rd Place: Maya Ahuja

Tomato Hunks

Sign me up for that

Beefsteak Better Boy. Need me

a Mortgage Lifter.

Honorable Mentions:

Wendy Weisner

Haters gonna hate

Uniter, not divider.

Maters gonna mate

Caley Foster

A Tomato’s Choice

You can be rotten 

Or you can be an heirloom.

Make your mama proud.

Caroline Burrows

Tomato

To martyr? To mate?

To veg out, or be fruitful?

My cherry. My choice!

Oddities:

1st Place: Elizabeth Clark

A tomato as ripe as a peach,

if only my small arms could reach.

But I'm just an ant, so clearly I can't;

guess I'll just sit here and screech.

2nd Place: Anita Louie

The Journey of a Tomato

Below the ground a fragile seed takes root

As summer rainfall tickles earthy soil

The dainty tendrils unfurl into spouts

And wriggle up, relentless in their toil.

They poke their heads up, greeting beams of sun

Their morning dew drops glisten in the light

Their time above has only just begun

But they will have to fight a brutal fight

Days shift to nights, nights shift to days and weeks

The sprouts begin to blossom marigold

They shiver through the storms and rains so bleak

But not once do they falter, standing bold

The summer dwindles but the field still glows

With plump and juicy ruby tomatoes.

3rd Place: Taylor Emery

Some think a peach blush,

The odor of suntan lotion

Signal summer’s here.

Others believe

Tomato red vibrancy

Summer harbinger

Heirlooms:

1st Place: Katherine Brick and Zach Blair

Vines invade thy yard

Bow down ye peas and carrots

Long live tomato!

2nd Place: Heather Liddington

Summer in the south,

Maters’ fried, tea on my lips,

Y’all, we do it right.

3rd Place: Camille Tambunting

perhaps it is the color of the sun cut flat

purling tomatoes, 

how sweet when sundered, the sun

pulsing in its flesh

Honorable Mentions:

Jake Dowler

Red waxing gibbous,

blood moon on the horizon

of my dinner plate

Taylor Emery

Gardeners’ heirlooms—

Amethyst, rubies, emeralds,

Edible summer jewels

Aimee Johnson

Shakshuka Recipe 

Oil. Peppers. Onions.

Mash tomatoes with a spoon.

Crack in eggs. Simmer.

Bliss Button-Hale

Volunteers

Tomatoes will grow.

Intentionally or not,

tomatoes will grow.

Ali Hendrickson

My regal red friends

Catch eyes with crown-laden heads

Queens of the garden

Deep scarlet in hue

Yet heavy like gold in hand

Richer than Buffett

You're not an apple

But I consume you like one

Juice trickles down wrists