Shears still against
Shears lay still against dark earth after their task. The bush, newly pruned, offered not emptiness but focused energy—bronze buds overlapping in precise circles. This concentration echoed how remembered paths harden into form through time’s passage, while others dissolve into the faintest resistance under a hand's touch. Though shaped by constraint, the pattern wasn’t forced; instead, it bloomed from within, a quiet acceptance of its own boundaries.