2023 NaPM 12 April

[RiverNotch]

Yesterday's vanity actually displaced today's prompt, originally for 11 April, which was the most replied-to prompt for 2013. Once more by milo: 

Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month.

Topic: Write a riddle as a poem.  You can use an old one, but try to create your own.
Form: any
Line requirements: 10 lines or more.

[Mark A Becker]

Sweet Tooth

It's so
hot outside
that a bead
of sweat oozes
between your
freckled breasts,
pooling in your
belly button.
Ah, the green
relief of shade.
You swirl your
tongue eagerly
licking each side,
slide your mouth
slowly over, up
and down, up and
down. The pink circle
of your lucious lips
dripping, the sound
of “mmm” vibrating
in your throat. So sweet
so cold
all
the
way
to
the
stick.


             
(modified from an earlier version)

[CRNDLSM]

Guess which state has made the death penalty
more accessible, eight out of twelve vote.
Most of the time it's reserved for murders,
But now it's open to S Predators.
I'm not here to defend awful people,
But this very state determined parents
affirming trans identified children
To be child abusers. No, this isn't 
Genocide, but guess which state?

[Wjames]

Born at the age of 35 or older
between a horse and royalty,
I remain on one colour surface
my entire life.

I rank below a red bird
but above the Greek helper
in my vocation.

What am I?

[dukealien]

The You Know, The Thing


“What’s black and white,”
she said, “and red
all over, twice?”

“I’ve heard this one, it’s
a newspaper,” I simpered.

“Wrong.”

“Oh, alright. I know
the other one.  It goes,
‘A sunburned zebra.’
Gotcha!”

“What about that ‘twice?’”
she riposted in a trice.

“It must be,” I muttered,
thinking rapidly,
“two newspapers!”

“No.  That will not go.”

“Then it’s two sunburned
zebras, there now, plains as...”

“Still no go, Romeo.”

A third clever possibility
escaped me like a bumblebee
flying free
after stinging.
“I give up.”

She grinned.  I groaned.
“It’s...
a sunburned zebra
reading a newspaper
right down to the want-ads
and obituaries.”

“That’s silly,”
I complained
but she wanted
something explained:

“What’s a ‘newspaper,’
anyway?”

What a little dimpled lark
you are, I thought,
to memorize that entire jape
without any understanding,
darling ape.  And said,

“It’s like an influencer
but made of wood
and, you know,
red.”

[TranquillityBase]

Molloy met a lobster and the lobster said
I’m sorry to tell you poor Beatrice is dead
Molloy screwed up his courage and did a dance.

The lobster joined him in his delirious swirls
and soon they were surrounded by a clutch of girls.
God demanded the dance to end, but Chance

declined to listen and Death agreed.
Molloy began to sing a song of a Dervish deed
and his twirl became a howl that birthed a trance.

Molloy and the lobster soon became one
to God’s horror they danced into the sun
ascended to heaven and then they were done.

[RiverNotch]

Someone found a key
to the box without a lid
and its golden treasure is
not any longer hid,

although beside it sits
pools of blood and water:
the key had been a spear,
the opening a slaughter,

the treasure being breakfast,
the box someone dear.

[Semicircle]

Dogmatic

Sifting algorithms
arrange sand
to satisfy the sphinx

another combination added
for every offering