should I count syllables according to how a word is spelled or according to how it is pronounced?
Syllables are all about pronunciation. When I wrote the first line, I pictured it sounding like, "A young fella from Lightning Flat, Why." It's something I've seen in limericks before, pronouncing abbreviations as if they themselves were words to pronounce. But I didn't explain it, oh well.
(And by the way, I didn't mean for it to have the
meaning of the word "why," just the sound. It's tricky when the line we write is setting up for someone else to continue it. A cooperative art form.)
Okay:
A young fella from Lightning Flat, WY
With a smile that could rouse the dying
ran into a Texan
with a right rich old man
And said, "I'll take you since I can't have a guy."