30d30w: word twelve! mystery revealed! but just a little...

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Mykl Roventine

 

birthday

secret whistles,
fiery code…

              nothing.
happy wrapping
hides the empty
        cage.

Okay, boys and girls--we have reached that turning point that some of you have been longing for!  I would have had fewer choices than any day yet for Word Twelve (NPMF Syndrome developing, perhaps?  Surely you've heard of National Poetry Month Fatigue Syndrome?), BUT both Laura S. and Buffy spewed forth a slew of choices along with the prank snakes, and now Buffy has focused the birthday sadness for me with her word cage.   Yes, a cage sits under that happy wrapping paper, and now we know that those secret whistles and fiery coded wishes achieve nothing for a good but grave reason.

Curiously, that one single word both focuses the first stanza of the poem (somehow I already know that we've completed the first stanza) AND presses us to move on to the second act.  During the stanza break there will be heartfelt sighing and crying, but we don't need to say that out loud.  The image of the empty cage hanging there in white space conveys that powerfully. Instead, the first word of the second stanza will spin us out of sadness to face us in a new direction.  Bring it on, people--the lucky 13th word!  (Have I mentioned how much fun this is?)

Diane has the Poetry Friday round-up today at Random Noodling.  Do come back later when I hope to have posted the next Mighty Minnows poem from my kindergarten collaborators!