Flame Tree

In extravagant exuberance, the Poinciana,
on the crown of its forty-foot trunk,
lifts a thousand orange flames to the sky.
Some trees bear crimson, some bear scarlet,
all its children fiery, ardent, blazing.

Each cluster has flamboyant blooms;
each bloom, four petals spreading
three inches long and shaped like spoons,
and an upper petal, longer,
streaked with living yellow.

Bean-like seed pods dangle
rich as queen’s adornment,|
and the elegant umbrella of the Royal Poinciana
gives dappled canopy that’s wider than its height.

A gigantic flower masquerading as a tree,
the Poinciana shocks me with its splendor
and its speed of growing, also;
adding to its height, my own,
but in each and every single year!

At dusk, the fern-like leaves
fold their feathers up to rest.
I sigh in satisfaction, my eye still drawn
to the Royal Poinciana that ignites me;
and readies me
for keen and fervid dreaming.

©Susa Silvermarie 2018

Delonix regia is a species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae