NaPoWriMo 2026, Day 19 prompt: Pick a flower or two from the online edition of Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers and write a poem that muses on its names and meanings.

Yellow Cactus Flower

Prickly pear cactus flower,
you have an ugly and painful past and future,
but each Spring for a few days
you display baffling beauty.

You are deep and dedicated to one purpose,
to pollinate and become a red
cactus apple—animal feed or sweet jelly for people.
I like to see you, but I shall pass on picking.

I compared the life of Plath to yours.
Similarities that metaphorically story.
I pretend to understand, but I don’t.
Why must such beauty leave us?

Look both ways and allow every sense to send you the story of Spring.
Mind the gaps but focus on the life and beauty in front of you.

For NaPoWriMo 2018, I wrote a poem in response to Sylvia Plath’s “Poppies in July.” That poem also compared Plath’s life with the cactus flower. Click here if you want to read it.