I Rule Without a Crown

This is the landscape I rule without a crown. A yard beneath a canopy of mango leaves where afternoon sun lingers beneath the boughs, exposing where doves choose to roost overnight. This is my garden - morning light gleams over an aqua pool, refracts, as a breeze sends dapples over a long row of palms. I was the one to dictate the thick summer planting of tall bamboo persuaded by added privacy on the dividing fence, This is my world and I am the impossible one who will decree what is painted, what remains unpainted, where the birdbath will sit, or, what species to plant. I rule this landscape that the sky changes each moment, but not the phrases of birdsong that slip from every branch or each petal that unfolds, unbidden. Suzanne Delaney