Araliya

Explorers long ago
— or brigands, conquistadors or spice-bandits —
brought Plumerian gifts
beads for the heathens 
or a little piece of home 

We have since lost the name
and re-named:
The family Frangipani of Italy 
supplanted  the botanical monk Plumier 
but here in tropical lyricism 
the slip, supple grace inspired:
Ara-Liya, ‘that lass’

That lass
upon the branches
peeping over a wall
breaking curfews 
perfuming in subtleties unrecorded 

A flower correctly named