The perched hummingbird scratches with his fine toe
a spot just above his eye: turn of the head: Ah. Just so.
Then: off to crush his enemy, that other hummer,
he knocks the nuthatch off a branch for good measure.
In a swift turn of events, the fig beetle wins the battle
over the mulch, burrows below the kangaroo paw,
which decides to continue blooming indefinitely, impossibly.
A young crow wags the power line like a jump rope—rough
landing—while two lemon-yellow butterflies joust over
said kangaroo paw (pink), presumably in dispute
for the right to make more lemon-yellow butterflies.
The fox squirrels can’t decide who rules the coral tree.
Small chaos in the garden, in the margins of tragedies,
of so many huge defeats. But struggle itself, a matter of scale.