The Living Garden

Among the ornamental dwarf
trees, the shrubbery and
flowering plants, the garden
hosts a micro-world of residents
entitled through a covenant
with nature to be regarded as
denizens in perpetuity, their
presence animating the atmosphere
in an ongoing drama of glimpsed
activities, from the acrobatics
of the red squirrel and its
conspicuous outrage at the
sometimes-presence of black
cousins, to the night-time raids
of bandit-masked raccoons
delving deep into the compost
bins, delicately skilled in
removing lids, scrupulously
selecting tidbits, and the cardinals
whose brilliant plumage shames
rosebuds, resting on branches
below the bird feeder brimming
with seeds. The lone dove
invariably lingering when the
pairs have abandoned the seeds
fallen from above, ambles about
possessively, firm in its belief
that the arras is its alone, even
when the presence of an antic
chipmunk belies that conceit.