#riddlepoems — Public Fediverse posts

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.

#riddlepoems #poem #poetrycommunity #poetry #bible #oldtestament

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.

#riddlepoems #poem #poetrycommunity #poetry #bible #oldtestament

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.

#riddlepoems #poem #poetrycommunity #poetry #bible #oldtestament

Riddle-Poem:

Not poetry but simple verse
Describes a dogsled as my hearse
And steamer as my crematory.
Ambiguously a ghost story
Or tall tale, my saga’s told:
In mad rush for Alaskan gold,
I never felt sufficiently warm
Till old Cap burned my frozen form.

Who am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #poem #poems #literature #goldrush #alaska #americanpoetry #verse #pioneer #history #ghoststory #talltale #poetrycommunity

Riddle-Poem:

I’ve got ten digits—oh through nine,
The alphabet—one half per line,
The Sun with brightly shining face
And Moon in the opposing place,
A floating board with felted feet
Which makes it easy work to cheat;
I’m limited to yes and no…
I say goodbye but not hello.

What am I?

#poetry #riddlepoems #poem #poetrycommunity #pseudoscience #paranormal #otherside

In the meantime, you can pick up a copy of my latest book on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CMDHQB7Y

#poetry #poetrycommunity #poems #riddlepoems #poetrybook

Riddle-Poem:

I lost a fleet of battleships
Because I couldn’t come to grips
With sacred chickens’ appetites.
Valerius the Greatest writes
That when the birds refused to eat
I brought about my own defeat
By tossing them into the sea
Along with Roman augury.

Who am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #poem #poetrycommunity #ancientrome #history #legend #augury

Riddle-Poem:

I lost a fleet of battleships
Because I couldn’t come to grips
With sacred chickens’ appetites.
Valerius the Greatest writes
That when the birds refused to eat
I brought about my own defeat
By tossing them into the sea
Along with Roman augury.

Who am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #poem #poetrycommunity #ancientrome #history #legend #augury

Riddle-Poem:

I lost of fleet of battleships
Because I couldn’t come to grips
With sacred chickens’ appetites.
Valerius the Greatest writes
That when the birds refused to eat
I brought about my own defeat
By tossing them into the sea
Along with Roman augury.

Who am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #poem #poetrycommunity #ancientrome #history #legend #augury

Riddle-Poem:

I lost a fleet of battleships
Because I couldn’t come to grips
With sacred chickens’ appetites.
Valerius the Greatest writes
That when the birds refused to eat
I brought about my own defeat
By tossing them into the sea
Along with Roman augury.

Who am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #poem #poetrycommunity #ancientrome #history #legend #augury

Riddle-Poem:

I lost a fleet of battleships
Because I couldn’t come to grips
With sacred chickens’ appetites.
Valerius the Greatest writes
That when the birds refused to eat
I brought about my own defeat
By tossing them into the sea
Along with Roman augury.

Who am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #poem #poetrycommunity #ancientrome #history #legend #augury

My second book of Riddle-Poems has been published! Thanks to many people here in the #mastodon community. Many of these poems were the result of prompt words from @tanweerdar (#mastoprompt) and @gus (#scifiprompt) and all of them were vetted/tested here first!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CMDHQB7Y

#poetry #poetrycommunity #riddlepoems #poems #smallpoems #riddles #poet

Riddle (revised):

The moments after I begin
Are signals of my origin
Recorded in the starry sky.
They’re distant and detected by
Your instruments of observation
As cosmic background radiation
And patent evidence of the
Initial singularity.

What am I?

#poetry #poem #smallpoems #shortpoems #micropoems #riddlepoems #poetrycommunity #cosmology #astronomy #astrophysics

Riddle:

In brightly-colored clothes I went
About till my imprisonment
And subsequent recovery.
A crumbling house bequeathed to me
Along with a small plot of earth
Became my home. All things of worth
And fancy raiment cast aside,
Fair Poverty became my bride.

Who am I?

#poetry #riddlepoems #poem #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #religion #christianity #catholicism #legend #history #folklore #asceticism

Riddle:

My whole life had conditioned me
To hide my deep duplicity,
And I’m a man of many faults.
So I procured rare chemical salts
And mixed them with a red solution.
Now, to reverse my devolution
I must restock my workshop shelves
Or lose both my conflicted selves.

Who am I? (Or, who are we?)

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #literature #gothic #horror #classic #darkside #innerdemons #innerstruggle

Riddle:

You might not need a smart machine
To know the ratio between
Circumference and diameter,
But if a pattern should occur
Out in the umpteen-billionth place,
To shine a light upon its face
Or slice the pie with fine precision
Requires some very long division.

What is it?

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #numbers #math #infinity #irrationality #geometry #technology

Riddle:

With eagle's beak and raptor feet,
I’m ruthless when it’s time to eat.
I wear a black mask on my eyes.
My victims meet their grim demise
On pointed barb or thorny spike.
The mockingbird’s my lookalike,
Though we are not at all the same.
And butcher is my family name.

What am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems
#poetrycommunity #birding #birdwatching #passerines

Riddle:

My mate and I, we look the same
And dwell in holes by family name.
Attested in Old Pliny’s words,
I won the title, “King of Birds”
For flying higher than the Eagle.
My methods weren’t exactly legal:
I hid myself, a tiny thing,
Within the plumage of his wing.

What am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #birds #birding #birdwatching #passerines #songbird #ancientgreece #classics #naturalhistory #pliny #fable #legend #mythology

Riddle:

I’ve lived a life of sin and crime.
The end approaches. Now it’s time
A priest hears my deathbed confession.
So fabricating each transgression
And feigning that I feel chagrin,
I make as if my greatest sin
Was merely swearing at my mother
And hoodwink thus that holy brother.

Who am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #medieval #italian #literature #classics #story #stories #tales #satire #religion #christianity #church #confession #crime #hypocrisy #sainthood

Riddle:

Down dingy halls with checkered floors,
In rubber rooms, behind locked doors,
White-robed and wide-eyed, stark and raving,
My housemate screams. But I’m behaving
Perfectly normal, as you see.
I’m scheduled for lobotomy
To still the voices in my brain.
I swear to you… I’m not insane.

Where am I?

#vsspoem #bedlam

#riddlepoems #poetry #poetrycommunity #tropes #psychology #horror

Riddle:

I’m father’s choice, but mother dotes
On you. She bid you kill two goats
And serve them up to win his blessing
Impersonating me and dressing
In their skins. You’ve been at my heels
And cooking up deceptive meals
Since birth. My due now goes to you…
I sold it for a bowl of stew.

Who are we?

#MastoPrompt #impostor

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #bible #oldtestament #siblingrivalry #religion #judaism #christianty

Riddle:

Although I’m only nine years old
I’ve got a suitcase full of gold,
A house, a monkey and a horse.
My nationality is Norse
But most my life, I’ve lived at sea.
I’ve no one to take care of me,
But I get by on strength and grace
With mismatched clothes and freckled face.

Who am I?

#MastoPrompt #freckle

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #children #kids #kidsbooks #classics #movies

#MastoPrompt #linger

I’m up before the day’s begun
And set out earlier than the Sun,
Announcing to the Earth and Air
His imminent arrival there
With dripping tears and rosy fingers.
The brief time that my presence lingers
The world’s enchanted by my light
And celebrates the close of night.

What am I?

#riddlepoems #poetry #smallpoems #poetrycommunity #nature #time #naturalscience #mythology #legend #cycleofrebirth

I sit upon the tyrant’s throne,
Enjoying as my very own
His riches and his worldly pleasures.
But he has taken extra measures
To make sure my experience
Is more than wine and decadence,
Suspending, just above my head,
A sharpened sword by single thread.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #poetrycommunity #legend #history #literature #ancientrome #ancientgreece #classics #allusion

Whilst on an errand for my dad,
I caught a monstrous fish that had
Attacked me by the Tigris River.
My guide advised I keep its liver
Along with both the heart and gall,
In case the Devil comes to call,
And other uses of those pieces,
Like curing blindness caused by feces.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #poetrycommunity #biblical #medieval #renaissance #motif #art #story #legend #bible #hebrew #apocrypha #catholicism #religion #judaism #christianity

Accomplishing no feats of fame,
I lack an individual name,
Like all my kind except a few
Who earn great names from deeds they do.
They’re always paired with valiant story
And generally expository,
Like No-tail, Trap-foot, Flies-like-bat,
Blind-eye or He-who-belled-the-cat.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #poetrycommunity #wildlife #nature #varmint #pest #folklore #legend #story

When I was seven (oh dear Heaven!)
A dozen, or at least eleven
Variations I had heard
In usage of this useful word.
I made a pact with my best friend,
Through thick and thin, until the end,
Never to tattle when one said it.
Later, in Salinger’s book, I read it.

#poetry #smallpoems #poem #riddlepoems #language #literature #slang #expletive #colorfulmetaphors #profanity #poetrycommunity

One prayed to Mars for victory,
The other sought to marry me
While calling lovely Venus’ name.
Awakening Diana’s flame,
I begged her, let me wed the one
Who loves me true, or be with none.
Three prayers were answered when one died,
And Saturn took Cythera’s side.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #medieval #literature #english #epic #poem #classic #tales #chivalry #poetrycommunity

In quiet, meditative gardens,
My pliant xylem quickly hardens,
Displaying outstanding tensile strength.
Easily clipped to custom length
And hollow just like any grass,
My volume’s ratio to my mass
Is such that I’m bewildered where
I find the fuel to feed a bear.

#riddlepoems #poetry #poem #riddle #smallpoems #botony #landscaping #gardening #plants #materials #zen #panda #poetrycommunity

As we approach that time of year
When barbeques and ice cold beer
Are welcome breaks from work and school,
Have fun, be safe, chill out, stay cool,
But stay sharp too—and use some thrift
When searching for the perfect gift,
To test how smart they’ve made your grad,
Or finally stump your know-it-all dad.

Get yours today!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKRQ5K53/

#riddlepoems #poetry #poets #writingcommunity #books #fathersday #graduation #dads #grads #booklovers #poetrycommunity

Stop there, I say, I must insist!
You seek the side that’s lost in mist
But only see into the middle.
Although it’s safe and sound to cross,
The ropes are frayed, and planks are brittle,
And stone abutments caked with moss.
So first you must resolve my riddle,
Or answer to a Bigger Boss.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #tropes #motifs #folklore #legend #riddle #school #poetrycommunity

A muffled sound behind the wall
Disturbs me as I sit to write
Amidst the waking urban sprawl.
Though sleeping soundly through the night,
And being quite an early bird,
It seems I have no other choice
(When “fuck” is every other word)
Than wincing when I hear that voice.

#vss365 prompt: #wince

#riddlepoems #poetry #poetrycommunity #urban #living

An animal in civilization,
The human builds his habitation
And throws out half of what he eats.
That’s why I thrive in urban streets
As well as in the woods or land.
Like him, I have a dextrous hand
And root through each sweet garbage pail,
Five silver rings around my tail.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #urban #wildlife #pest #varmint #fauna #animals #poetrycommunity

Home from the Crusades and full
Of doubt about my mortal soul,
My God and I seem unacquainted.
The skeptic squire critiques a painted
Allegory and asks for gin.
The actor and his wife both grin
At Pestilence’s plaguing breath.
And I… I’m playing chess with Death.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #classics #cult #movies #film #art #history #religion #church #medieval #middleages #danceofdeath #sweden #poetrycommunity

#MastoPrompt #quill

Absent of thought but keen of will,
With rambling hand I hold this quill
And write the words that come to mind.
Read them aloud and you will find
A steady stream of consciousness.
I’m not concerned that I digress
Or can’t complete an argument,
For I know what I think I meant.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #writing #automaticWriting #SteamOfConsciousness #meaning #intention #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

#SciFiPrompt 104: #motherboard

If you decide to alter me,
Remove my drive and memory,
My personality persists
In tables or in ordered lists
Despite the way my data’s stored.
But don’t replace my motherboard,
Assigning my old network name,
Expecting me to be the same.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #computers #technology #identity #AI #existentialism #future #poetrycommunity

@gus

#vss365 #relax

Though influenced by traditional schools,
I’ve learned since to relax the rules
And let the form respond to function.
I won’t refuse the final unction
But till then I’ll resist the call.
It wasn’t me who breached this wall
And split the plunder into thirds…
But I’ll clean up their surplus words.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #symbolism #metaphor #postmodernism #traditionalism #modernism #poetrycommunity

#MastoPrompt #myopic

When we split up, I usually go
With Strength and Beauty. Sometimes though,
I join up with the Other Guys.
I’ve got perceptive, skeptic eyes
And even groping for my glasses,
The bogus phantom rarely passes
Scrutiny, though I blindly crawl…
The least myopic of us all.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #classic #cartoon #cartoons #meddling #kids #mystery #poetrycommunity

#vss365 #Adventure

A piece of paper colored black
With soot, and written on the back,
A message of my deposition.
A pirate’s treasure was our mission,
And pirates have a set of rules.
But this poor band of jealous fools
Defaced the Book of Revelation
And crossed their luck of all salvation.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #literature #kidsbooks #novels #classics #blackspot #poetrycommunity

Composed by request:

A study of primary sources
Reveals the first of earthly forces,
Among whom I am counted one.
In later legends, I’m the son
Of Beauty, and I pierce the hearts
Of wisdom-lovers with my darts,
Who lounge while listening to the phorminx
And praise me over dinner and drinks.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #riddle #ancientgreece #hesiod #homer #athens #plato #philosophy #love #mythology #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

@SeanMoriarty

#SciFiPrompt 84: Space suit

The future’s now, and how you’re dressed
Is everything. To look your best
When traveling in this Universe
Through worlds of interstellar commerce
And meeting with alien shareholders:
A skin-tight fit with Saturn-shoulders,
A classic for your long commute…
What we like to call our “space suit.”

@gus I guess I forgot to post this one.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #fashion #sciencefiction #futurama #clothing #space #interstellar
#poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

#SciFiPrompt 102: In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)

Relying on ISRU,
Machines that easily cut through
The regolith and banded gneiss
To gather ore and frozen ice,
We live with everything we need.
A simple concept, though indeed
The acronym wants explanation:
In situ resource utilization.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #science #sciencefiction #planets #technology #space #mars
#poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

#SciFiPrompt "Ancient"

Behind the veil we pull the strings,
With secret handshakes, signet rings,
And ancient ritual initiation.
The governments of every nation
Have members in their highest ranks.
We own the land, control the banks,
And you can see our influence still
In symbols on the Dollar Bill.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #riddle #secret #secretsociety #society #conspiracy #theory #conspiracytheory #fraternal #order #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

#mastoPrompt "Violin"

I borrowed someone’s violin
But realized the key it’s in
Was flat a single quarter-tone.
Though not ungrateful for the loan
I gave it back: superior ears
Cannot be burdened with their peers’
Prosaic chores. I’d just as soon
Return it rather than retune.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #classicalmusic #music #violin #vienna #childprodigy #perfectpitch #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

Yesterday's #vss365 prompt, "Wolpertinger":

The thirty-first of June each year,
A license can be purchased here,
By those who have the right I.Q.
(Between fifty and seventy-two).
From midnight until two o’clock,
The hunters are allowed to stalk
The legendary antlered hare…
I’ve seen a few myself, I swear.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #folklore #fakelore #mythology #cryptozoology #wyoming #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

#vss365 prompt: "Change"

Here out under the open sky,
My last request: to bum or buy
A cancer stick or coffin nail,
So I won’t quiver, flinch or flail,
The same kind this good soldier has,
To calm my nerves one last time, as
I stand here on the firing range…
Don’t bother, you can keep the change.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #war #execution #cigarettes #tropes #irony #firingsquad #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

#SciFiPrompt "Space Elevator"

With cable and a counterweight,
I transfer goods, deliver freight,
In two directions: up and down.
And at my base, a booming town,
Beneath a sky of orange and bronze,
Is founded on Pavonis Mons,
Whose height and place along the equator,
Make it ideal for a space elevator.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #sciencefiction #mars #redmars #space #technology #science #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

#SciFiPrompt "Goblin"

While possibly an allegory,
My poem tells a children’s story,
Critiques the mores of the times
With vivid and irregular rhymes,
Alludes to lust, forbidden fruits
And flesh force-fed by groping brutes
That’s purchased in a plethora,
Refused by Lizzie, craved by Laura.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #english #poet #victorian #christinarossetti #goblinmarket #goblinweek #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

Although I love the anapest,
The iamb’s where I do my best.
My syllables of sixty-four
Make perfect squares. But sometimes more
And sometimes less will do just fine,
As long as there’s four beats per line—
Such precedent to break the rules
Is not unique to modern schools.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #iambic #anapestic #tetrameter #poetics #poetryisnotdead

#MastoPrompt "Tassel" -- cont. from today's #vss365 prompt:

But someday I’ll get out of here:
I simply need to persevere,
To watch in silence (and behave)
Projected shadows in this cave,
Regurgitate the things I learn.
And so I’m told I’ll finally earn,
Through jumping hoops and general hassle,
A piece of paper and a tassel.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #childhood #school #graduation
#education #platoscave #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity