distant mirth

A wild flower flickered in the Monkey King's palm—small as proof, loud as a crown He taught it tricks of wind and riddle-speech, to cart the dusk and tumble kingdoms down Its petals rewrote maps: veins as poems, each fold a compass that makes old borders frown So from that stubborn bloom a new legend grew, stitching history to song and earning its own renown

It snipped the red seam of the city—streets unstitched into ribbons that chased their owners' shoes A compass sprouted ears and winked; it pointed where regrets hid and led them into tickled alleys Officials found their laws folded into paper boats, floating upriver toward rumor and laughter The Monkey King clapped; the flower somersaulted through cartographers' pockets, turning order into game

After the game, the city inhaled carefully; laughter folded into a single small sigh. The flower furled a petal like a hand over a name, petals whispering old calendars shut. The Monkey King let his applause hang heavy then slip away, placing the bloom on cracked stone in reverence. People moved like soft liturgies past, leaving paper boats of yesterday that the river accepted without sound.

Streetlamps bowed and learned to whisper, laying a velvet hush along cracked cobbles. A petal drifted into a child's palm; the child cupped it like a secret and practiced quieting the ache. The Monkey King let his grin shrink to a moth's wing, keeping his hands empty so sorrow could be held. Paper boats returned at dusk, muffled benedictions afloat, carrying names made small enough to be borne.

Lamplight folded like a hand and the streets inhaled into the hush of a chapel. A petal nested on the child's chest; she learned the syllable of one small name and kept it soft. Paper boats became offerings, mottled paper prayer sliding into the river's steady palm. The Monkey King sat very still, his grin thinned to a respectful quiet so the city's bereft song could breathe.

A far-off laughter unbuttons the horizon, a carnival breath that loosens the city's gathered hush Petals tremble, learning a new punctuation; the child's soft syllable shifts into a bell-tone and holds Paper boats tilt, borrowing the laugh as sail, and begin to stitch their ripples into quicksilver choruses The Monkey King's grin flutters — small as a moth taking flight — sharing the secret of a笑y