Beneath the Willow
OutroForest warms by inches, path spills forward,
still stitched with teeth and dare,He matches her pace,
neither shepherd nor jailer—just the gray man keeping ledgers in the thin cold air,Somewhere Godmother hums of rest and Crooked counts his future
share,Beneath the willow, Elise walks on,
knowing what she carries now and too aware that every next step will ask
which part of her answers there.