PAD Day 26: Two Kinds of Monster

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "response" poem (a poem that responds in some way to one of your own poems or someone else's), and (2) "write a portrait poem that focuses on or plays with the meaning of the subject’s name. This could be a self-portrait, a portrait of a family member or close friend, or even a portrait of a famous or historical person."

I didn't combine the prompts today. My "response" poem is an answer of sorts to my Day 19 poem "Monsters" - a poem from the monster's point of view. It takes roughly the same form as the previous poem, two rhymed quatrains, although with an ABAB rhyme instead of ABCB. (The A rhymes here are actually near-rhymes.)

Mis-monster-stood
 
As a monster I would fear children,
That's why I hid under their beds.
I never would injure or kill them,
Or touch a hair on their cute heads.
 
Now I try to be less of a monster,
I've a home with a pretty front porch.
Yet the townsfolk think I'm an imposter,
and they chase me with pitchfork and torch.

My response to the second prompt isn't so much a "portrait" as a bit of political satire and a riff on the name itself.

House-hold Name
 
It's a name we can't seem to escape—
for decades, all over TV and hotels and,
God help us, the White House and beyond.
 
It's a name derived from German,
probably from their word for "drum,"
a big, noisy instrument with no melody.
 
It means to hold the highest suit in cards,
or to best someone at their own game—
something that he does with sadistic glee.
 
But consider also all the words that rhyme
with that name, how ugly and undesirable
they can be—
 
bump, clump, slump, thump,
frump, grump, hump, lump,
plump, rump, chump, dump.
 
We're crossing the bridge toward
the next election. Let's make our bid
one no-trump.