Today's Poetry Prompt

Get an empty jar
and a butterfly net.
Walk down the busiest street
of the city you live in
and use the net to catch the words
of everyone who passes by
and put the words in the jar.
Seal the jar when it is full.

Go home and bake a cake

(any flavor you wish),

stirring all the words you caught

into the batter.

Eat one piece of the cake every day

until you have eaten it all.

When you next go to sleep

the most important words

will come to you in a dream.

Write those words on a sheet of paper

when you wake up.

Burn the paper

but keep the ashes.

Spread the ashes on top of the grave

of someone who was dear to you in life.

Go home, but come back the next day.

When you come back, a rose bush

will have grown up out of the grave.

Pick one rose and take it home.

Prick your finger with one of its thorns

and let the drops of your blood

drip onto a blank sheet of paper.

Fold the paper and put it

into an envelope.

Address the envelope to yourself,

put a stamp on it,

and drop it into the nearest mail box.

When the envelope is delivered to you,

open it and unfold the paper.

There is your poem. - Jeff Barnes