Day 25 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2026 / Stafford 99

Hello, friends! My poem today is #99 in this year's Stafford Challenge (and #464, including last year's Stafford Challenge poem count). Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: Write a “poem in which you use at least three metaphors for a single thing, include an exclamation, ruminate on the definition of a word, and come back in the closing line to the image or idea with which you opened the poem.” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, write a remix poem. Pick a poem you wrote earlier this month and re-create it in a new way. Maybe you take a sonnet and turn it into free verse, or a haiku. Maybe your free verse can be turned into a triolet or villanelle. Or you can mash up multiple poems into a new creation. ” Today I'm remixing yesterday's poem, the first half, subtitled "Spring Riddle." And following the NaPoWriMo prompt pretty much to the letter. Midnight Riddle             —curtal sonnet A skin-winged blackbird that isn’t a bird. A winter-long sleeper that’s not a bear but lives in caves. Under starry night skies, invisible singer that can’t be heard. Three inches long, a foot wide. In your hair she’d make you scream, “Help!” Mating ecstasies in autumn, delayed fertilization in spring. Delayed? What could that mean? In her the sperm is stored, then she is fertilized during first flight after hibernation.             Little Brown Bat . . . wondrous! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Little Brown Bat (Photo Source) Today, Alan is remixing “Not Bug but Function” from Day 9. And bringing in elements of the NaPoWriMo prompt. Document If I document my list,             Not ally but deceiver,             not enabler but manipulator,             not dealmaker but conceder,             not liberator but jailer,             not savior but abuser,             not leader but invader,             not king but parasite, I might call it my finest worksong while I witness this world leader pretend not to bring the end of the world as we know it. “Welcome to the Occupation!” I call with sadness to the one I love as we gaze into the fireplace, my list of concerns like exhuming McCarthy, although I don’t believe we’ve brought him back so much as disinterred his underground machinations, and we have been too green to realize it. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Alan, great remix. What do you think about this revision and also mine above? Please comment below on that. Thanks for coming by the blog, everyone. See you again tomorrow? Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ