Today is my birthday, to which I have long alluded,
And yet a style for this post, my grasp has eluded.
My options, of course, have restrictions numbering two,
So it should be easy to pick, my choices are so few.
One constraint is the limited time in which I must write and post,
And the other is my experience in all things poetical (trivial, at most).
Of the first but one hour to me remains, and the second, ah, the next,
Well, the second is bound to a riddle, a rhyme, or a mixing of those texts.
I like to rhyme, truly I do, but there’s something better to be got:
I think I’ll make a riddle, whose answer shall be my plot.
But what subject to choose? I haven’t a clue!
But choose I must, or read is all you’ll do.
Pick a topic, I say, but never was I good at fishing…
Hmm, should I make you guess what it is that I’ll be wishing,
When the cake is served and the candles all are winking?
No indeed, that’s my secret, and only Callie has an inkling.
Well, then perhaps, something in the same family,
Something personal, something only to do with me…
Now I’ve got it, the (almost) perfect idea,
That shall celebrate my score of years,
As well as the very words with which I write this ditty:
I’ll have you guess my first word, spoke when I was itty-bitty.
Despair not, if you haven’t the slightest notion,
Of what word it was that set my tongue in motion,
These clues four I’ll leave for you,
Dive on it, hopefully they won’t stump you.
First, they are in my very first memory,
From back before I turned the age of three,
I was sitting in our great, red wooden barn,
And I think I thought, ‘Hey! Give me back my yarn!’
Second, although they’ve numbered many, and were mostly dames,
We’ve always made the effort to give them cool names.
From hosiery, to corroded metal, and gemstones in between,
They all answered when we called, or so it did seem.
Third, to us they all did speak, in their own unique way,
Always demanding something, or so their tone did seem to say,
From food to play, and sometimes just to be left alone,
(They always did have a personality all their own.)
And fourth, its rhyme thrice here has been shared,
Find the rhymes, and in them you’ll find a letter paired,
And speaking of pairs, in each word you’ll find
A pair of syllables, with vowel sounds of the same kind.
Alright, I’ll agree, the riddle is a completely truncated,
But try and solve it, I promise it’s not very complicated.
Send me your answer, by comment, email, or phone,
And I’ll reward you with something, if indeed you have won.