BLUE FLOWER HAIR CLIP

Hibiscus bud

Beautiful and brief
Is your blooming above
Our late summer leaf . . .

Sudden as descent of
White startled dove
Your wonder was sent . . .

At dawn you were not seen
Now you're splashed on marsh
Where only green has been . . .

Are you butterflies
Immobilized in flight
Drifting from our skies . . .

-- from "Hibiscus By Piscataway" by Agnes Ware

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Malvaceae)
Common names: China Rose, Hibiscus, Shoe-flower, Gurhal ???? (Hindi), Juba kusum (Manipuri), Chemparuthi ??????????? (Tamil, Malayalam), Japapushpam, Japapushpa, Trisandhya, Aruna, Pratika, Rudrapushpam, ...(sanskrit)

This is a multi layered hibiscus found in many hues in various parts of India. Perhaps the name "shoe flower" orginated in Jamaica - the petals of hibiscus makes a good shoe shine!

An evergreen shrub but in favourable conditions reaching the dimension of a small tree, with alternate leaves and solitary medium-sized five-petaled red flowers. The plant is in bloom practically all the year around but profusely from April to September in India. It does not seed. The flowers and leaves have been extensively used in India for hair care and medicinal uses.

Location: Bangalore

In the stripped harbor
of a broken word,
a syllable,
the cloud opens to rain
the rain to river
and the river to the ocean

A flickering wish
floats on waves
drawing life from the
mourning salt,
my dancing flower.
Negotiating passage with
the storm and
the thread of water

I recklessly look
for a seabreeze
to carry that wish,
in the closed, open
and half open spaces of
my mind