as a child

every sunday after church

when we went to the beach

i took shelter from the sun

under one of the many sea-grapes

that lined the shore

marveled at their hard almond-shaped seed

the flesh of which was never salty

i had to hunt for a heavy stone

to break the nut free

some of the branches

were low enough

for me to swing my legs over

hang upside down and try

to catch my shadow

my mother sometimes

gathered the nuts in a bag

an amateur oenologist

she had long been at the practice

of making wines from local fruits

inviting the men in the community

over to sample her various concoctions

she would have been a vintner in another

time and place but this was jamaica

after all and she was woman

black and ambitious and accepted

no boundaries to her imagination

which she gifted me

i remember learning

that seagrape was dioecious

pondered how

the male and female

got together to mate

and who collected the sap

we used in Jamaica

for dyeing and tanning leather

sea-grape or cocolloba

the latter name always made

me giggle falling to the ground

like the brown leaves

that it sheds abundantly

covering the terrain

in this fall that is summer

here in st croix

she is your regular

kind of woman

can be found chatting

cheerily

on many roads

perched here and there

commonly stunning

wearing mostly red

like only

a confident woman can

with her five petals

that flap and wave in the wind

her green bud encases

and her stigma

stands like an erect

penis in anticipation

she’s the national flower

for Haiti, Hawaii,

Malaysia & South Korea

if you want favors from

Kali and Ganesha in India

bring them a red hibiscus

before you go courting a

Tahitian or Hawaiian woman

make sure her hibiscus is

behind her right ear

indicating she is available

in the Philippines

children use it to

make bubbles

in Jamaica as a child

we used the petals to shine our shoes

we drink it as tea

known as bissap in West Africa

Karkadé in Egypt & Sudan

it is a diuretic

contains vitamin c

lowers blood pressure

although often mislabeled

it is not sorrel the is drunken

in Jamaican & Trinidad and elsewhere

throughout the Caribbean

we use it to decorate

our homes

we grow it to beautify

our yards

humming-birds, butterflies and bees

love it

horticulturists cultivate

myriad colors and lacy petals

but if you should stop to ask

and admire and fondle her petals

she will say to you

me is just an ordinary woman

wearing red who loves to hang out