Heirloom

Dad always grew tomatoes

They were his pride and joy

So when the lady outside Home Depot

Offered me the box and said,

‘Do you have a garden?’

I didn’t say no, though I should have

I said, ‘We have a theatre…’

And somehow that was just as good.

It grows like a weed in Hollywood

In the cracks between Film and Industry

It was a grease monkey’s garage, then a shooting range

But only now

Can we call the people who run it clowns.

We put the tomatoes out

On the air conditioning supply unit

To try to add some poetry to that phrase.

Today is tomatoes in the parking lot

Tomorrow is white roof, filtered water, solar

panels, cycle racks, urban garden, green

building, public plaza, artist’s village

To build a cultural heritage for the city

I once heard described as ‘Hell’s parking lot’

Tomato by tomato

Because nobody dreams as hard as poets

And nobody works as hard as clowns.