Red Tomato

The bikini.
Hot when bought
for to Rio at 30
moderate hot for Saint Tropez at 40
still warm (add 20) in Dar Es Salam.

As I wade into the churning surf
He watches from the beach.

The bottom half gives way
to its age and a surprise wave
that breaks to claim the prize.

Later at the hotel
he says he’ll always
keep in memory the vision
of frothing foam spilling over
a sunlit pomodoro.





Anne Hicks Siberell is a mixed-media artist and writer who lives and works in Hillsborough, California. Her one-of-a-kind and limited edition books focus on communication in early civilizations before written language. For more than thirty years her concrete diaries inspired by Sumerian tablets have been shown throughout North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. They’re also with writing in Concrete Journals 1, 2, and 3. She has written and illustrated more than a dozen books for young readers.