Riddle-Poem 6/18/2025
The flavor that my stigma has
Is equally as valued as
Its lovely yellow-golden hue
With which the beggar must imbue
The fabric of a simple robe
That’s recognized around the globe
To symbolize the blazing fire
That purges longing and desire.
Riddle-Poem 6/17/2025
Exchanged for sword and battle-spear,
Bent back, unstrung, I’m lying here
On piled hoards in a treasure room.
But soon my cord will sing the doom
Of every uninvited guest.
For one comes in disguise to wrest
And wrangle me into submission
At the very moment of recognition.
Riddle-Poem 6/16/2025
This vaulted ceiling never falls
Because its towering, windowed walls
Are held in place on either side
By winged support that we provide
While sunbeams pass through every arch.
Like soldiers on patrol we march
In double-file, at the command
Of Him whom we empower to stand.
Riddle-Poem 6/15/2025
When Lucifer was cast by God
To Earth, his perfect flesh was flawed
By landing in my tangle first.
My sweet fruit’s now forever cursed
With tartness and the dark of night.
He nurtures even further spite
In Autumn while I’m still delicious:
He spits on me at Michaelmas.
Riddle-Poem 6/14/2025
A hero holds the severed head
Of one whose face is cause for dread
High in the northern, wintry sky.
I am her ever-winking eye,
A famously unlucky star.
Degrees from where my sisters are—
Secunda, Tertia, Quarta—I’m
The demon Gorgonea Prime.
Riddle-Poem 6/13/2025
We two, a pair, each have a pair
Of wings with which to sail the air.
We work together, not alone,
And never on our very own
But always girded on the feet
Of one who’s plenty swift and fleet
Without us, yet, with us strapped on,
Outruns the rosy-fingered dawn.
Riddle-Poem 6/12/2025
I bloom from star-crossed lovers’ blood
Into a turban-shaped flower bud
That opens with the rising dawn
And cradles, like a papasan,
A newborn baby of the elves,
As fairy-folk who clothe themselves
In garments of my colored petals
Protect him from the dew that settles.
Riddle-Poem 6/11/2025
Although I wear a tiny bell
And live inside a cage, I’m well
Adapted to captivity.
For there’s a hand that sets me free
And pulls the hood from off my head
To seek the light with wings outspread
And bring back gifts from burning sky
And never close my Horus-eye.
Riddle-Poem 6/10/2025
One morning, they discover me
Between the city and the sea
And drag me through the gates in chains,
But deep within, my gut contains
A trick that turns the tide of war:
Emerging from a hidden door
Constructed by a clever man,
My passengers complete their plan.
Riddle-Poem 6/9/2025
I take my scientific name
From him whose anger is to blame
For countless woes across the sea
Since I’m a common remedy
For bleeding wounds and other ills
Like aches and pains and fever-chills.
My thousand leaves and flowers are small
And grow outside the garden wall.
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Riddle-Poem 6/8/2025
I turned aside, I hugged the wall,
I lay down on the ground, but all
I got for these was harsh abuse.
Then Someone set my slow tongue loose,
And I demanded explanation.
Thanks to my odd articulation
And rider’s subsequent surprise,
A star and scepter will arise.
Riddle-Poem 6/7/2025
Boeotia’s fate lay in my hands
When I made sure all fertile lands
Were sown with seeds of toasted grain.
But then my husband went insane
And drove me to the water’s edge.
With son in arms, I leapt from ledge…
That’s when they started calling me
The White Goddess, Queen of the Sea.
Riddle-Poem 6/6/2025
By weeping wall and kissing tree,
Between those two, encounter me
Accepting small denominations
And hearing silent supplications
Of what you would’ve if you could,
Of what you haven’t but you should—
Potential moods like the optative
Combined with tributes in the dative.
Riddle-Poem 6/5/2025
Though everybody knows my name,
Not one of them has come to claim
Me from the burning rummage pile.
But long ago, I brought a smile
To the face of a bright eyed boy.
His memory of that long, lost joy
Is how my story first began:
The last words of a dying man.
Riddle-Poem 6/4/2025
Applied to coupled cart and post
More intricately bound than most,
A patient mind, proficient hand
Persistence and a method planned
Have not yet solved my mystery.
The one who can untangle me
Shall rule throughout the land as lord.
But who says you can’t use a sword?
Riddle-Poem 6/3/2025
Since I was once the only way
To divvy up the hours of day,
They put me on a pedestal.
But analog and digital
Now cast their shadows over me.
My weathered numerals, hard to see,
Trade prominence for brambled homes
And brass gnomons for plastic gnomes.
Riddle-Poem 6/2/2025
I’m kneeling on a precipice
Receiving an embrace and kiss
With closed eyes and contorted neck.
Reflective of the fin-de-siècle
And influenced by Art Nouveau,
My elegantly garish glow
Is robed in flowing, floral motif
Of tinted oil and golden leaf.
Riddle-Poem 6/1/2025
The nature of a rolling stone
Is such that time—and time alone—
Suffices to erode its girth,
Returning matter to the earth
By bits and pieces till it’s gone.
But I forever carry on,
Directed forward, then reversed
By one who, cheating death, was cursed.
Riddle-Poem 5/31/2025
As Minister of Science and
Defender of the Faith, I’ve banned
All research into human history.
A man that speaks is no odd mystery
But evil, bent on pure destruction.
Lest we fall prey to lies, seduction,
Let him seek out his truth alone…
Out there in the Forbidden Zone.
Riddle-Poem 5/30/2025
We’re hanging from the side of one
Who hangs himself in noonday sun
All cinched up in a leather purse.
For we procured a kiss and curse
In darkness of a drunken night.
Once capable of shining bright,
We’re tarnished now, corrupt and dirty…
Accounted by the number thirty.
