{"id":3930,"date":"2021-04-29T19:10:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T19:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2021-06-09T16:26:52","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T16:26:52","slug":"tales-from-the-town-1-the-poetry-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/2021\/04\/29\/tales-from-the-town-1-the-poetry-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales From The Town #1: The Poetry Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They were going to have a poetry competition, Claire had decided. She had things to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I paint a picture instead?\u201d Ethel said, picking up a particularly appealing piece of paper from the pile. \u201cI don\u2019t like writing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t care for people correcting her spelling, which they did all the time. It was so rude.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo!\u201d Claire said. \u201cIt\u2019s a poetry<\/em> competition. And besides, we\u2019ve only got pencils.\u201d<\/p>\n

She brandished them like knives.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a painting\u2019s a kind of poem,\u201d Ethel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not,\u201d Claire insisted. \u201cWho told you that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnna,\u201d Ethel said. \u201cAnd she\u2019s a student<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, she\u2019s wrong,\u201d Claire told her sister. \u201cIf you paint a picture you\u2019re disqualified.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I write a story?\u201d Daniel asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if it rhymes,\u201d Claire said. \u201cBut it still isn\u2019t going to win.\u201d She took her hairbrush out of her pocket and held it like a club. \u201cMy poem\u2019s going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoems can\u2019t win,\u201d Tina said. \u201cThey don\u2019t work like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything works like that,\u201d Claire said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does,\u201d Claire declared. She began brushing her hair with such intensity it glowed. \u201cAnyway, I bet you don\u2019t even know HOW to write a poem!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I know how to write a poem,\u201d Tina said. Upstairs, in the box beneath her bed, were 973 neatly filed poems, at least one of which was over a hundred pages long and written in the alliterative style. Even Tina knew that this was a bit much. \u201cI\u2019ve written loads!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019ve never seen any of them.\u201d She looked at Ethel and Daniel. \u201cHas anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Ethel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo you haven\u2019t, Daniel! No one has.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tina never showed her poems to anyone, especially not Daniel. Not because she was embarrassed, or that they were private. She simply didn\u2019t like to see anybody cry.<\/p>\n

Especially not Daniel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, I\u2019m not playing,\u201d Tina said. \u201cIt\u2019s wrong!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re only saying that because you\u2019re going to lose,\u201d Claire said with a wild stare. \u201cYou and<\/em> your stupid poem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoems can\u2019t lose, either,\u201d Tina said, shaking her head and slowly fading away. \u201cIt\u2019s not what they\u2019re for<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire stamped her feet, and then turned round to glare at the others.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou better not be giving up!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the room was empty. It was so empty it gave the impression that it had always been empty. Even Lucas seemed to have left his usual spot down the hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI win, then,\u201d Claire said sullenly. She sat down on the chair between the bookcases and looked out of the window. \u201cI always win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside, she could see Daniel and Ethel playing on the swing. Claire threw the pencils on the floor and stamped on them, then picked them up and very tidily put them all away.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

1. Written on April 28th and April 29th, 2021<\/em>
\n2. Please see the cast of characters<\/a> for more information about the protagonists<\/em><\/p>\n__________<\/br>

Support An Accumulation Of Things<\/a><\/h3>If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon<\/a> or my ko-fi<\/a>. <\/br><\/br>Patreon subscribers<\/a> get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.<\/br><\/br>(Ko-fi contributors<\/a> probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). <\/br><\/br>Thank you!<\/i><\/br><\/br>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They were going to have a poetry competition, Claire had decided. She had things to say. \u201cCan I paint a picture instead?\u201d Ethel said, picking up a particularly appealing piece of paper from the pile. \u201cI don\u2019t like writing at all.\u201d She didn\u2019t care for people correcting her spelling, which they did all the time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1208],"tags":[1192,1210,191,765,1209],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tales-from-the-town","tag-a-cast-of-characters","tag-competition","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-tales-from-the-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3932,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/3932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}