In a Cuban Garden

By Sara Teasdale

Hibiscus flowers are cups of fire,

( Love me, my lover, life will not stay )

The bright poinsettia shakes in the wind,

A scarlet leaf is blowing away.

A lizard lifts his head and listens —

Kiss me before the noon goes by,

Here in the shade of the ceiba hide me

From the great black vulture circling the sky.