paper elegy

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

The bloom began to inventory the impossible: receipts for storms, a ledger of vanished streets and small apologies It listed a moon with pockets, a compass that read which childhood you'd be tomorrow, a church spattered in origami birds Rivers were filed under "waiting," mountains cataloged by the taste of their shadows, borders stamped with lullaby signatures The Monkey King watched the list sign

So the bloom began to pare the ledgers into three-breath prayers, each entry a small sky pocketed moon emptied river holds a child's name until morning opens its palm origami church bows

A thin frost hems the bloom's edges, each petal folding like a closed shop window Its ledger exhales white filaments into the lane, listing which doors may dream through winter The Monkey King tucks his laughter under a down coat and listens as leaves file away their names The flower files the year like a receipt, stamping every memory with a patient, polite forgetting

Frost at the bloom's rim loosens; crystals slide like small coins into a bright seam The ledger exhales warm mist—ink bleeds back toward names as if remembering how to hold them The Monkey King cups that steam and laughs; city-doors sigh open, their cobblestones hum soft returns Petals unfurl like waiting hands, each receipt melting into a slow, careful yes

The bloom coughs a small trill; petals become a choir, tiny beaks arranging syllables like seeds Alleys answer in peals—sparrows as stenographers, naming each receipt aloud again and again The Monkey King taps the cadence; each tap breeds an answering phrase, a looping street-song circling the lane Streetlamps bow and repeat the chorus; every returned name falls feather-soft onto the ledger, sung整

Sun fingers the bloom's rim; sparrows thread a trembling first phrase through the petals Receipts fold into staves; names press into notes and alleys answer in sandal-soft counterpoint The Monkey King taps steam into rhythm; shutters click like wooden clappers as bakers and booksellers hum awake Windows yawn open and spill pale chords into the lane, the ledger smiling as it rearranges into morning

The bloom folds its receipts into a small elegy of pages, each name an inked coin set to be remembered Alleys recite the stitched margins; farewells unbutton like warm coats and borders unlace into song The Monkey King lays his crown upon the book's spine and lets a single laugh stitch the rest into morning Dawn turns the last page; the flower closes—a ledger finished with mourning and opened, at