#riddlepoems — Public Fediverse posts

Riddle-Poem 4/6/2026

My stalk holds the forbidden spark
That gave mankind the power of God,
And serves as frantic frenzy’s mark:
An ivy-wrapped and pinecone rod.
I put forth seeds that help you see,
As snakes learn when they shed their skin,
And stave off hunger gradually
While adding licorice to your gin.

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Riddle-Poem 4/5/2026

I calculated thrust and lift
But didn’t factor in the cost.
Now freedom’s both a curse and gift
Since there’s a part of me I’ve lost.
I’ll keep on crafting clever things
Admired by gods and sought by men.
But I’ve hung up my homemade wings
And sworn to never fly again.

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Riddle-Poem 4/4/2026

To branches neither high nor low,
Like parasitic mistletoe,
I cling in bunches evergold
And serve the one who catches hold
As passport to an ancient hell.
In shady grove or woody dell
I break off clean but hesitate…
Then sway the guardian of the gate.

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Riddle-Poem 4/3/2026

Although I line the marshy shore
And shallow ditches by the road,
I’ve long been found most useful for
The cover a quaint abode,
As well for slicing through the air
When squeezed between a lip and tooth
Or bound by twisted, flaxen hair
To sing of wild and rustic Truth.

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Riddle-Poem 4/2/2026

I wear a long and yellow coat,
A pink hat on my head,
While dancing out a drafted note
On tiptoed, naked lead.
The mark I make is not for good
And easy to undo.
Most commonly, I’m made of wood
And stamped with number two.

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Riddle-Poem 4/1/2026

Before you sharpened, metal, stone
Or wood, you picked me up — a bone
That once had been a donkey’s jaw.
There was as yet no written Law
To regulate this harrowed land.
But I felt hefty in your hand…
Ideal for hammering and hewing.
And you knew just what you were doing.

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Riddle-Poem 3/17/2026

I drive my car across the night
And at both ends I’m seen
To shine a light of golden white
That flashes red and green.
Although fourfold I look like one
Because I’m so remote.
I suckled Saturn’s rebel son
Who named me Little Goat.

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Riddle-Poem 3/15/2026

Because of creeping climate change
That limited the lands I range,
And since I never learned to fear
The upright hurler of the spear
Who coveted my tusk and mane,
Ten thousand years asleep I’ve lain
Beneath a layer of permafrost
On both sides of the bridge I crossed.

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Riddle-Poem 3/1/2026

I used to make my wallet fat
By working as a bureaucrat,
Collecting money at my booth
Disinterested in deeper truth.
But then one day I got a call
And simply walked away from it all.
I heard the summons of the Muse
And started spreading the news.

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Riddle-Poem 2/28/2026

With fifty oars and heroes brave
I was the first to cleave the wave,
Plucked from pines on a lofty height.
Mermaids marveled at the sight
And raised their heads above the foam.
I carried golden cargo home
But then was broken into parts
For ease of reading astral charts.

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Riddle-Poem 2/23/2026

Within this doorless room of bronze
No serpents, bulls or shining swans
Appear before my mortal eye.
But there’s a window to the sky
And golden rain is pouring through.
Soon, I’ll be tossed upon the blue
Enclosed together, in a chest,
With a divine child at my breast.

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Riddle-Poem 2/22/2026

Fifty minus one—do the math—
We’re trying to fill a ritual bath
To wash away our mortal sins:
Daggers disguised as neat hairpins
Once filled our husbands’ hearts with holes.
So now, our sad and restless souls,
Whenever we upturn a spout,
Observe no water pouring out.

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Riddle-Poem 2/20/2026

Though he, like me, attended college,
My partner always plays the fool,
While I picked up more practical knowledge
At Cedar Yorpantz Flying School.
We both have patriotic hearts
(As Minnesotans usually do)
And scholarships not based on smarts
But sports... at Wossamotta U.

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Riddle-Poem 2/16/2026

By no unnatural spell or hex
I banish foul and filthy specks
And clear away the evidence
Of entropy and passed events
That slowly settles on the floor.
I send it flying out the door
Or hide it underneath the mat
And, while I’m at it, shoo the cat.

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Riddle-Poem 1/25/2026

After the Dog begins to boil,
When Earth is cracked and dry,
I make sure that the thirsty soil
Need not look to the sky.
I’m resurrected without fail
Each year… and that is why
The Keepers of the Crook and Flail
Live on after I die.

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Riddle-Poem 1/23/2026

I wield my water, hot and cold,
Against the god of fire, while bold
Swiftfoot performs mass execution.
I’m choked with reddish-brown pollution
For all the death I’m forced to swallow.
I cannot find a course to follow
But I resist the rising tide
By fighting for the Phrygian side.

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Riddle-Poem 1/21/2026

I painted, sculpted, engineered,
Dissected, theorized and steered
The course of art toward that of science.
For both are best when in alliance
And in the hands of men like me
Who cultivate diversity
Of talent, expertise and skill
While taking notes with ink and quill.

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Riddle-Poem 1/15/2026

With simple mind and open heart
She takes away the better part
Of sustenance that can’t be seen.
But someone needs to cook and clean
So I refuse repose and rest.
We entertain our special guest:
One half-distracted head that stands,
One sitting set of idle hands.

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Riddle-Poem 1/2/2026

My name denotes a leaf of green.
My essence is a distillation.
I’ve traveled trading routes between
Despotic power and sovereign nation.
Exotic silks and fabrics bore
My mark of authenticity
About a century before
I reeked of non-conformity.

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Riddle-Poem 12/31/2025

The stumbling of a stupid ox
And bungled balance of a box
Resulted in my strickening.
I barely even touched the thing
When instinct chose to instigate
A sudden care for sacred freight.
Henceforth that place in name shall be
Where the Lord burst out against me.

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Riddle-Poem 12/29/2025

My usual task, to drill the Earth
And make the fabric stay,
Familiar from my ferrous birth,
Is set aside today.
Beyond my once expected worth
I’m valued versatile
For drilling drunk, unconscious girth
Beneath a woman’s wile.

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Riddle-Poem 12/28/2025

I’m smuggled past the Sculptured Stones
Attached to muscled meat on bones
Prepared to pierce thick layers of fat
When Right Thigh of a Diplomat
Conspires with Left Hand of a Judge.
I’m stuck, but now I neatly nudge
Embarrassment outside the door
By spilling dirt across the floor.

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Riddle-Poem 12/27/2025

I leave my name behind. It rings
Of covenant and vow.
But clinging to it only brings
A ruckus and a row.
I counsel and consult with kings,
Make prophecy of plow…
Explainer of Mysterious Things
Is what I go by now.

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Riddle-Poem 12/20/2025

Though unofficial in the Church,
I bring a basket and a birch
Enforcing a morality
By nature abhorrent to me
As partner to my mirror-self.
I rank above the helper elf
With hooves and horns and lashing tongue...
Awaiting where the socks are hung.

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Riddle-Poem 12/18/2025

I followed Isis on her search,
Was branded evil by the Church
(Though I am neither snake nor goat),
They say I hold the antidote
To my own paralyzing sting,
That when I’m trapped within a ring
Of fire I’d rather die than burn...
And every winter I return.

What am I?

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Riddle-Poem 12/15/2025

The written word secured my fame,
But first I had to earn a name
By mastering the skill to cruise
Through shifting channels, reefs and sloughs,
Avoiding snags and hidden shoals,
While measuring with sounding poles
The shallow depths… since I needed
Two fathoms before I proceeded.

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Riddle-Poem 12/14/2025

Before the need to map the sky,
Before the plow was polished by
The furrow to a ferric shine,
Before the savage, twisting vine
Was subjugated to the knife,
I was a bitter source of life
That freely fell from autumn heights
To nourish through the winter nights.

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Riddle-Poem 12/13/2025

Let no one entertain a doubt
That both of us are most devout
And constantly engaged in prayer.
But there is something else we share
More intimate in its own way:
I call him over, then display
Behavior that he least expects
And eat my boyfriend after sex.

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Riddle-Poem 12/12/2025

My seven gems, which rested on
The head of one whose woebegone
Appearance on the lonely sand
Once caught the eye and clinched the hand
That taught you how to bruise the berry,
Announce the dawn in January,
Around midsummer reach their crest,
And sink in autumn toward the west.

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Riddle-Poem 12/4/2025

To see my subjects on the stage
Behind a sheet of glass,
The operator must engage
My knurled knob of brass
And choose among objectives three
The closeness that she craves
With some small curiosity
In how the world behaves.

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