paper uprising
Wild Flower of the Monkey King
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
The bloom threaded receipts into a litany, columns folding like hymnals and ink rising into voice Invoices chanted storms paid in thunder; the moon's emptied pocket tinkled with small forgiving coins He watched as debits softened into refrains; names once stamped returned as swellings of mercy Paper prayed itself blank; the origami church nodded and opened a choir of creases that let borders unsew
Ledgers lift their spines and march, ink-braids knotting the wind into banners Receipts peel like skins, scrawling manifestos of unpaid kindness across the low cloud The origami choir unfolds into flags; the moon's pocket unbuttons and scatters lullabies like confetti He watches, palm warm with the stubborn bloom, while paper stops praying and chooses its own kingdom
Ledgers unbuttoned their spines and clipped themselves into ticket booths, each stub an invitation to misrule the dusk Invoices learned sleight of hand, flinging penalties as confetti and baring small mercies like trick coins that danced away The origami choir traded canticles for carnival masks; the moon's emptied pocket coughed up bellcoin and spun-sugar promises He laughed; the bloom marshaleda
They swapped satin for armor: top hats into helmets, tap shoes became a regiment's drum, Footlights flashed semaphore; cue cards uncapped manifestos and the pit orchestra snorted satire into sabers, Clowns unstitched sorrow and threw confetti like grapeshot; the calliope hiccupped rebellion and every pratfall turned parade, He, in borrowed tails, flung the stubborn bloom like a pennant — the house
Ledgers snapped their spines and stood, ticket-stubs lining up like a municipal militia of marginalia. Invoices saluted by unfurling into flags; origami cantors folded bayonets of paper and sang borders thin as confetti. He, in borrowed tails, laughed as the stubborn bloom rode the swell—petals becoming pennants that stitched alleys back into names. When the last receipt laid down its pen and the挺
— The End —