Eccentric Eating

ECCENTRIC EATING

You've all heard of the 'lonely petunia' that fell into an 'onion patch';

How she found herself among strangers, where nothing seemed to match?

Well something rather similar recently happened to me.

I discovered how unpleasant being 'odd one out' can be.

You see, I'm an organic tomato, grown in the natural way,

Without those nasty chemicals that can take ones breath away.

Of course, I'm not quite spherical; indeed I can't escape

From the fact that I'm crudely bulbous, a rather unfortunate shape.

Nor am I evenly-coloured, with a smart unblemished sheen;

In fact you'd call me blotchy, part-crimson and part-green.

My mates lying in the carton were all a little askew;

Some big, some small, some quite grotesque, depending how they grew.

We were lying there very quietly, while the shoppers peered and prodded.

Sometimes they made some rude remarks while a certain shopper nodded

Saying 'Here are the organic ones. Do you ever buy them, Mother?

I hear they taste quite nice to eat, but I think I'll buy the other.'

By 'the other' we knew, of course, she meant those horrible round balls

That lie resplendent in the bins of all the shopping malls.

While she was speaking she picked me up and held me in her hand.

I wanted to explain myself, but how would she understand?

I wanted to shout ' I am the best although I don't look great!'

But I knew, of course, that rejection was bound to be my fate.

And this is where my story takes on a dramatic hue!

She put me back in the wrong bin! What a terrible thing to do!

She placed me among perfection! I felt myself go numb!

Imagine, a lumpy, blotchy thing sticking-out like a sore thumb!

The red spheres didn't speak to me, they just turned-up their noses!

I knew that in their critical eyes I wasn't smelling of roses!

But, as I was lying there alone, misshapen and neglected,

By these smart things of the market world so hopelessly rejected,

A little girl who was walking past suddenly stopped and said

'Look at that nice tomato! It isn't a plain old red!

It's got a really funny shape; it's face looks like a man!

I'd like to take it home with me! Mummy! Say I can!'

So they've put me in a fruit-bowl, right on the very top!

Suddenly, it seems to me, I'm the cream of the crop!

There are apples, pears and other fruits but I'm top of the pile.

Now I've found I've a shape like a human face, 

Boy!  Am I going to smile!