The Ragged Road to Romance

A patchwork valentine stitched from cigarette burns and piano-wire, The Ragged Road to Romance follows Polly Moran’s nameless street-busker as she ricochets between pawn-shop heartbreaks and moonlit trolley rides, trading ukulele chords for stale bread and promises that dissolve like sugar on the tongue. The narrative is a frayed ribbon: she loses her threadbare coat in a card game, wins a counterfeit wedding ring from a one-eyed sailor, commandeers a parade float shaped like a swan, and ends up scrubbing lipstick graffiti off the same courthouse steps where she once dreamed of honeymoon confetti. Every reel peels another layer of city skin—rain-slick bricks, El-train sparks, the sour perfume of speakeasies—until the only thing left un- pawned is her cracked voice serenading the dawn, unsure whether the song is a proposal or a requiem.