Scents At Sunset Poem by Padmanabhan Ananth

There are many of these shrubs around this place
Evergreen bushy leaves, seeming ready to embrace

But only few months in a year bloom they will
Especially in winter, when the weather is chill

A million white flowers will blossom every sundown
Each a tiny horn in each, as if to herald the bloom

An Indian discovered this shrub, back centuries
Somewhere in the tiny islands of West Indies!

'Raat ki rani' or 'queen of the night' they're called
Their flowers - slender tubular corolla, perfumed

When all other plants and trees bloom at day
The shrubs, their flowers just shed and stay

But at night each and every little bloom
Expels vigorous a powerful bewitching perfume

As if a tiny fragrance can sprays from each flower
They always make me halt-n-inhale some more

Without doubt they are also treats for my eyes
In full bloom green-n-white frozen fireworks

But they say these shrubs are lethally venomous:
'They are difficult to exterminate, a menace! '

Why can't we let these little shrubs, I wonder.
Let them survive, thrive and incense night air?