Leap Day: Poems for a Quadrennial Occasion

Happy Leap Day! This day only comes once every four years, so let’s make the most of it, in verse!

I’ve blogged about my emailing pen pal Eric Jonas, especially how I’ve sent him limericks and poems about air guitar. On New Year’s Day ’16, Eric said, “Since this year is a leap year, we have an extra day to cram in even more emailing ….” This led to many emails on Leap Day! On February 29 that year, I sent him my first Leap Day–themed poem, a meager senryu:

Today is Leap Day
We've made the most of the day:
Lots of emailing

On Leap Day ’20, I upped my game. Eric opined, “Today’s deluge was truly inspired. I laughed. I cried. I forgot to reply all. A tour de force!”

In February 2022, I started sending Eric my original poems—some sensationalized—bemoaning the lack of Leap Day in nonleap years and anticipating Leap Day ’24. While most of the poems have been senryu, I’ve tried my hand at other poetic forms: acrostic, doggerel, limerick, quatrain, screamo lyrics, and tanka. Here are the highlights.

Leap Day ’24 (acrostic, 1/14/23)
Leap Day is a year plus a month and a half away:
Emails aplenty—for epic emailers to play!
April Fool's comes yearly and brings fun;
Pi Day likewise gets the job done.
Don't settle for annual when quadrennial is best,
And don't be on a retreat then with an emailing rest!
Yearning in anticipation, we will ace this test!

February Preference (senryu, 2/4/23)
Shortest month of year 
Either with or sans Leap Day
But I prefer with

What's Deserved (quatrain, 2/7/23)
If we can get one day a year for Earth Day
And one day a year for someone's birthday,
Leap Day surely deserves the same fate
As an annual, not quadrennial, date.

The Finale of a Lunch Break Well Spent (tanka, 2/7/23)
Am I the odd one
For wanting to have Leap Day
Though it's an odd year?
It's confined to even years—
And every other, at that!

No Longer the Older Twin (quatrain, 2/16/23)
Twins born on February Twenty-Nine and March One
Don't travel equally for their trips around the sun.
The first twin out has fallen behind—
No longer older, caught in a bind.

It'd Be Unwarranted to Have This Be Quadrennial Too! (senryu, 2/28/23)
Today's Leap Day Eve
Regardless of what year ’tis
Can't give that up too!

When the Clock Strikes Midnight (screamo lyrics in the style of Hawthorne Heights, 2/28/23)
It's February Twenty-Eighth;
I check my calendar, and
My sails are deflated.
My expectations were grand,
But there's misery, not joy.
Twenty-Twenty Three is cursed:
When a new day arrives,
It will be March First.

When the clock strikes midnight,
I'll scream and cry to no end!
I'm lost and beside myself—
Can't find a way to mend!
My tears will pile up
In a massive heap,
Wanting the day that won't come:
The day that's yclept Leap!

I'll stay up and watch the clock;
However could I sleep?
But awake I face the true nightmare
Slept on by most peop-
le who don't see what's wrong.
The masses haven't got a clue.
You say just 32 million seconds?
Well, to that I say boo-hoo!

When the clock strikes midnight,
I'll scream and cry to no end!
I'm lost and beside myself—
Can't find a way to mend!
My tears will pile up
In a massive heap,
Wanting the day that won't come:
The day that's yclept Leap!

I Want It to Be Leap Day (doggerel, 1/28/24)
I want it to be Leap Day;
These other days all suck!
I want it to be Leap Day!
And so I shoot my puck,
Taking my best shot, 
At that sought-after goal,
For icht bein ein emailer,
Und that is my role.
The emails will be many;
There'll be countless myriads:
More emails in one day
Than in weeks-long periods.
Patience isn't my forte,
But ’tis the option on my plate.
For the king deluge of all deluges,
We will simply have to wait.

Carpe Diem (limerick, 1/29/24)
There was a gentleman with a crush
On a day that didn't come ’round much.
   Tho’ Leap Day’s elusive,
   It won’t slip thro’ his sieve—
He shall seize the day. Oh, what a rush!

End of February? (senryu, 2/1/24)
Today end of month?
’Tis concept of ends (plural)
Not the end I crave