Today I received one of my poem-a-day e-mails (although Knopf only usually delivers them to my in box during National Poetry Month, so I was a little surprised.) But pleasantly so, when I discovered the poem's subject: peonies!Pink and White (by Deborah Garrison)
Peonies are the only flower I care for
and when I saw them from the window
yesterday, tumbled and heavy along
a fence, fully exploded, nodding
at the ground, hanging their heads but not
yet spoiled, I remembered
a summer (maybe seven years
ago, or was it ten?) I wasn't sure
our love would come again,
and here I am, almost
kissing the grass like that,
bursting and rich, cracked
all over like broken cake—
makes you cry but still sweet.
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