sticker book

you peeled me from my bed neck first.
a finger around my 2 dimensions. we used to 
eat firecrackers in the white-empty. fished
each others glow & adhensive. i was rare 
as a rose in a pear factory. all the production.
pressed into a symbol. you wanted to keep me.
pushed the edges down like furrowed lines.
called me halo or hologram depending 
on the light through the bay window. paging through
my bones. flimsy in the birding. saw the cardinals
turn flat & stagnant & the dinosaurs collapse 
into pictograms. eveything could be made figurine.
everything could be held still. your thumbs 
like rogue pilots flying planes engine-empty.
water churning beneath our feet. old aquifers
disucssing unknowable politics. setting your teeth
one by one on the sink in the bathroom. 
the locker room expanded to hold the whole house.
boys came & stuck themselves to the walls.
the difference between a portrait & a puncture
is a matter of equipment. hold still.
removing one too many from the stove. oven mit.
clothing iron. laying side by side 
on the counter to cool. you & me just little
printed dreams. our edges almost touching.
you closing your eyes the way a feather 
gets lost in a crowded museum.