There are many of these shrubs around this place <br />Evergreen bushy leaves, seeming ready to embrace <br /> <br />But only few months in a year bloom they will <br />Especially in winter, when the weather is chill <br /> <br />A million white flowers will blossom every sundown <br />Each a tiny horn in each, as if to herald the bloom <br /> <br />An Indian discovered this shrub, back centuries <br />Somewhere in the tiny islands of West Indies! <br /> <br />'Raat ki rani' or 'queen of the night' they're called <br />Their flowers - slender tubular corolla, perfumed <br /> <br />When all other plants and trees bloom at day <br />The shrubs, their flowers just shed and stay <br /> <br />But at night each and every little bloom <br />Expels vigorous a powerful bewitching perfume <br /> <br />As if a tiny fragrance can sprays from each flower <br />They always make me halt-n-inhale some more <br /> <br />Without doubt they are also treats for my eyes <br />In full bloom green-n-white frozen fireworks <br /> <br />But they say these shrubs are lethally venomous: <br />'They are difficult to exterminate, a menace! ' <br /> <br />Why can't we let these little shrubs, I wonder. <br />Let them survive, thrive and incense night air?<br /><br />Padmanabhan Ananth<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/scents-at-sunset/
