Syncopated Love
My NYC Midnight Rhyming Story Competition submission
Howdy pals
Something a lil different this week!
At the end of last year, I entered my first grown up writing competition with NYC Midnight. I’ve been reading the winning pieces from their many competitions for years and have always loved how they cater to both frivolous and serious writing.
I decided that Rhyming Story would be a good choice for my first comp, because I knew that I found this format to be challenging but also really fun. One day I would also love to write a great children’s book, so this seemed like a good practice exercise.
Thousands of people from around the world entered, and we were divided into groups of around 40. Each group received a genre, a theme and an emotion to adhere to.
Our groups’ prompts certainly leaned toward the frivolous side of things -
Genre - Romantic comedy
Theme - Stand your ground
Emotion - Disgruntled
I was pretty stoked, given that I knew "‘Political drama’ was one of the genre options. We got six days to write, and in typical Ella fashion I used the first five days switching between a frustratingly blank brain and manically brainstorming, writing out two lines of every idea and then immediately hating said idea and going back to the drawing board. So I wrote this piece in maximum stress-mode on Day Six, right up to the deadline.
There’s lots that I hate about it tbh (I agreed with all the judges’ feedback), and so I considered heavily editing/adding stanzas on the end to balance it out before republishing. But then I decided I wanted it on Fish of the Sky exactly as I had entered it, so that after future comps I can look back to hopefully see how my writing under pressure has improved. It also got a Highly Commended award, which was very exciting, so I guess there must have been some good parts too!
Without further ado, enjoy this toilet-scroll content whilst I refine some meaty essays I’m wrangling with for upcoming newsletters. Oh and by the way, Syncopated Love was inspired by one of my favourite TV shows, Love on the Spectrum. :)
Wishing you all a week that feels like a rhyming story.
E x
Syncopated Love
Edmund Elton Carraway
had lived on Darkly Drive
For forty years, nine months, ten days
at cosy Number Five.
At the wizened age of seventy
Edmund was very particular,
set in his ways- especially since
the cancer scare (testicular).
He knew very well the things he liked
and all that he did not,
adhered to rules and strict routine
was timely on the dot.
Edmund always woke at eight and
walked the dog one point six miles,
greeted neighbours on the usual loop
with his trade-mark, no-teeth smile.
Back at home he fried two eggs and ate
whilst tackling the Sudoku
before yin yoga to soothe his
inflamed connective tissue.
After lunch he always gardened
trimming perfectly square hedges
pulling weeds and raking leaves,
cutting straight grass edges.
In the evenings Edmund played
a full jazz album start to end,
and fussed over his collection
of 200 novelty ink pens.
It was a good and simple life,
Edmund was mostly content
bar a nagging loneliness- perhaps
a friend would supplement?
Then one Sunday he returned
from his grocery shop to see
a moving truck two stories tall
parked across at Number Three.
He craned his neck to look for
his new neighbour and was struck,
When a flame-haired older woman
spilled out from the moving truck.
‘OH NO!’ she squealed as on the road
porcelain smashed everywhere
the loud noise had startled Edmund
who put his hands over his ears.
She was dressed in a nonsensical
outfit that made him stressed,
jangly gold bangles, frilly skirt
silk scarf and hair a mess.
Edmund froze when the strange creature
hurried over, curls all frizzy,
“Elizabeth Long’s the name but
we’ll be friends- so call me Lizzy!”
Edmund struggled to get words out
only managed his own name
“I’ll call you Ed’ Miss Lizzy said
‘Coz Edmunds’s kinda lame’.
Then just like that she bounced away
back to her unpacking,
leaving Edmund stunned about
the manners she was sorely lacking.
For the next week he peeped through
his living room blinds to spy
on the fast growing tornado,
of which Lizzy was the eye.
Edmund watched in horror as
her furniture moved in,
tassels and pinks and leopard print,
a whole cabinet just for gin.
And worst of all the hodgepodge
didn’t stay within her home,
turns out Lizzy was an avid
collector of garden gnomes!
Hundreds of them were littered through
her insane-looking front yard,
staring creepily at Edmund
like minuscule palace guards.
This mad woman had brought chaos
to Edmund’s peaceful street
he was most irritated, couldn’t
she be more discrete?
In the months that followed Edmund tried
to just get on with life
but obsession with her antics
Caused him much internal strife.
Lizzy practiced saxophone til late
and hung her Christmas lights in May
always ate breakfast for dinner
set her lawn up for croquet.
She parked her car all wonky
her garden grew tangled and wild
she burned spiced incense strong enough
to knock out a small child.
Edmund found it all egregious
her disorder had him reeling,
yet under his annoyance
was another, different feeling…
He had caught himself thinking
all the time about Miss Lizzy
in ways that made his heart beat fast
and his head get rather dizzy.
For instance, when she greeted him
during every morning stroll
‘G’morning Ed, ya sleepy head!’
something fizzed inside his soul.
He started to turn the volume down
on his jazz tunes after tea,
as sometimes he liked to listen out
for Lizzy’s sweet sax melodies.
Then one day it hit our Edmund
that this something which he felt
was what people called a crush!
oh what a card that he’d been dealt.
He mulled it over for 6 months-
the feeling just got bigger-
so he made a plan and plucked
up all his courage, charm and vigour.
In his best bowtie Edmund arrived
at Lizzy’s pink front door
“M’am I’d like to court you-
if you’ll change all your decor”
‘That’s joyous news’ buzzed Lizzy
‘Ed I really like you too,
but there’s no way I’m shrinking down
for you or any dude’.
‘What a pity’ Edmund sighed
‘I guess we’re incompatible…
You’re shiny and untidy
and I’m just too practical’.
‘Love’s a funny game’, said Lizzy
‘But don’t count us out just yet!
Polar opposites can harmonise
a glorious duet’.
So Ed and Lizzy stayed true to
themselves, but worked on compromise
and next spring wed in the garden
(flanked by gnomes) at Number Five.
Joyous!