Every city has its metronome - the pulse that keeps its people walking, working, obeying. In Blackbird Pie V, R. J. Kellan unearths the hidden architecture of that rhythm: twelve more darkly luminous stories that turn childhood rhymes into modern civic blueprints of control and rebellion. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" becomes a surveillance loop disguised as wellness. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" tracks a child across digital fences. "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" navigates rivers of data instead of dreams. "This Little Piggy" audits a market where mercy costs more than meat. "I Can Sing a Rainbow" turns color itself into a commodity. Each tale reveals the quiet machinery that produces comfort - stories of technology, faith, and fragile defiance written in perfect, perilous rhythm. Lyrical, unsettling, and fiercely humane, Blackbird Pie V is both ledger and lullaby: the latest chapter in a series that proves even the sweetest songs can keep score.