The peony path is lined with an avenue of box cones.
Cones that lean, windswept in higgledy piggledy directions
give shape in the winter landscape when the peony retreats
underground; cones that shelter the peony from frosted snow,
hide its ability to power out of the earth red shoots
that erupt in bold green hand-spans and spectacular scarlet
blossoms. Right now the peony path is a carpet of red
dashed to the ground by wind and rain leaving three-pod seed cases,
orange and hairy, like strange-plant versions of Orang utan
Pongo Abelii, exotic in cool northern summers,
arching away from their roots and bowing low to the earth.