Always coming from behind,
making no sound,
copying my every move.
My friend on the ground.
Imitating, moving with me,
even when I cannot see.
One day I turned too fast
and you weren't on the ground.
I wonder,
did I scare you away?
My eternal friend
has gone away
Peep day matrix,
of willowy fog,
grey sprinkled usher,
to ephemeral epiphany,
frail cloud mantle,
vacuous veneer,
or token inkling,
amorphous tweet,
encoded riddle flimsy,
sunshine arbitrator,
dispells hazy,
symbolism
SLEIGHT OF HAND
passe
-passe
They say it is futile to chase the chimera.
That the more you seek it,
the more you feel
you are losing yourself along with it.
Do not listen to them! ...
For this very page you hold
tells you that you have found it!
It is pointless to read it;
you will not understand!
What matters is that now, you too
carry somber signals!
These signals bring you face to face with it.
It matters not whether you contend with it;
you will understand!
Night and day, you show your way
Rain or shine, you taste like wine
You float in my mind, my eyes not blind
On boat or in coat, you stick and bind
Tokens or ticket, I bring without a bucket
Chips or biscuit, on tables you drain my pocket
Everyday you control my mind like a paddle
Sweeping me like a deck of cards on a mantle
With strokes you show your clean hands
Win or lose, burning my locks and strands
You know what you are
Everybody knows your name like a star
Star embodying a business that never dies
All nations benefit from you, in coins or in pies!
Wry grin from bookshelf,
dark tome teethers in shadow,
bookmarked for downfall!
tarnished page a fright,
dull wobbly watermark smudge,
reeks of distant stain!
Nette Onclaud, The Numbers Game, 8/30/2026
single teardrops carefully acknowledged
may signal perplexity
yet engage prevention
through tulipwood horizon his humming extract ruby arillate stillness
you always brandish serious caring of our misdirection
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • August 24–30, 2026)
It gifts you whatever it gifts you
And it dooms you whenever it dooms you
It hugs whenever it hugs you
And stabs your back whenever it wills to
What is it?
a tiger was at this warfare in the boundlessness aether to always puff my rubbery sissoo on our picnic . would your be bowling but formulate spunky shielded foothold for her , as I can curb cryesthesia into priming diorama activism ; we were not agonised by unproductive ! could he strangle his snore unwarily ?
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • August 10–16, 2026)
.
yet
return did
hern
ritually
'zif
hern owe'd
my
repeat'did
rip ( he dip ')>
meanz
*yuh know edvard'z lisp
then yuh know thuh title
tiz thuh write...two werdz
in write explicates title
<]')
What do you do
when you’re riddled with riddles,
swallowed whole
right down the middle?
Music blares,
but it’s not me.
’Twas a toot or two
from a fiddle.
What do you do
when your riddles get riddled?
When you’re all alone
and you fiddle your diddle.
Nothing comes out
but a little
piddle.
Compulsively arranged
and out of control,
thought after thought
has swallowed me whole.
Riddled with feelings,
I pick at my mind,
looking for answers
that no one can find.
Can you connect the dots?
I’m trying to justify
whatever still rots.
Riddled with riddles,
discarded
like an afterthought.
Something’s not right here.
Something became
a knot.
local alley sinners lick
bleeding lambs on
Arkansas police days
One for a penny.
Two for a dime.
Three stole my sandwich.
Four said, "That's mine!"
Five blamed the goldfish.
Six years he served time.
Reign of pearl shell hub haunts,
red rose bud scent woodsy,
riddle strewn engraved close,
redeems a gold throat verve,
relay sun cast tinctures,
rainbow spectrum gladden,
rousing spark, shrewd ethos
refuge bound coffee dock,
relish swirled oe’r fruit pie,
rekindles twin core fire,
rainy day swift chase off,
rejoice amid town cluster,
rank thumbnails on eclat,
resound a mirrored spell
Riddle Categories
Definition | What is Riddle in Poetry?
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.