We gather with the year still warmfrom all the hands that shaped it,passing cups across the tableas if the work might start againthe moment someone nods,each of us carrying this stretch of our yearin pockets, boots, and notebooks.A creak...

“a leafy bloom’s pledge"   Firm will enters through hidden morphemes, a vow carried without leaf or bloom. Resolve bends but does not shatter, its path refusing the easy blossom.   Leaf trembles against the restless air, flower opens to a waning flame. Soil shifts beneath uncertain steps, and...