Plumeria acutifolia

Scandinavian Review, Summer 2003 by Forsstrom, Tua

I walked in a city glittering

with exchange rates and low motels

Huge halls with slot machines

As if no one really lived there

Until, on a street corner among the car rental offices

Stood that tree like a cloud of scent and rain

Stood that tree like a cloud of rain and white flowers

That rained on me and were fragrant and falling

It was a lukewarm and quick tropical downpour

The white flowers and the rain rained on me

I'm standing in soaked through clothes and am old

And fragrance and rain surround the tree like a cloud

And there was no plane ticket to the Northern hemisphere

I wanted nothing and wished for nothing more

And there was no deceit and no slaughterhouses

Only Plumeria acutifolia, in rain