tiquette et l'Esthetique Tropicale
Our mint tea cools slowly in this heat,
and off to the right, a single sail
cuts through the multiple shades of blue
I have seen only in the Caribbean:
blues and blue-greens deepening to indigo.
On the half-terrace, everything is more
than summer, a brine-loving tree
(complete with methyl orange petals)
littering the walk with the withered pods
children sometimes use as maracas.
At this height, things fall away from us -
Look! Hibiscus cascading to the lawn,
the reds spilling over into pinks
then landing in fusions, inflorescence
a botanist would die for.
How easy to succumb to the tropics:
the flora, the white sand, the seascape,
the ever-present salt air of the casual.
At the mineral baths, virtually no one notices
the percussion of water falling down the rocks.