slicing tomatoes while studying erosion

a tomato-slicing employee dumped

eighty-eight point eight pounds, forty kilos, of tomatoes into a large container

and filled the container with anti-bacterial “veggie wash” near the veggie-washing sink

and let the tomatoes soak for more than a minute

then dumped out the wash into the sink,

slid the container onto his pushcart,

wheeled the cart back to the workstation,

and began using a mechanical tomato slicer

to slice tomatoes into five-pound heat-sealing bags

one tomato at a time. it is a job

well suited to one with a long-distance runner’s

or afghan-crocheter’s mentality,

someone who drives satisfaction from repetition

and precision.

but even runners and crocheters need some distraction

from repetition that may grow more tedious

with each passing hour. the tomato-slicing employee

found he had just such a need, so he broke up the tedium

by plucking out tomatoes in one specific area of the container

so that a cavity was formed

in the volume of tomatoes, and the cavity became a cave

as the tomato-plucker reached the container’s floor

and additional tomatoes were plucked

from the floor level while the tomato walls,

kept from collapsing by weight-pressure

from the top layers, were pluck-eaten away.

as far as the plucker could tell, this handiwork

did not slow his production, and may in fact

have increased his focus and efficiency.

..

eventually, of course, a wall collapsed, and when it did

the tomato-plucker suddenly realized

that he was unwittingly modeled a form of erosion

that bore a slight similarity

to the process by which structures

like the Grand Canyon

were formed.

he was elated and chagrined to find

that his working time had also eroded away

and he would have to hustle to clean up his station

by clock-out time.

..

as he clocked out he felt regret

that he was no longer in high school

and was this unable to convert his discovery

into a Science Fair project, but he still

felt ridiculously good.