Imitating L With Stickers On Her Foot (6th March 2024)

 

I was sending a few emails

My kids were quiet

Then they emerged

Shuffling awkwardly into the room

A couple of inches between them

I was confused, bemused

I looked down

L’s foot was decorated

Decorated with stickers

From a sheet free with a pack of crayons

When I was a kid

I loved stickers

I collected them

But didn’t like using them

Theirs have all been used

I later found one

On L’s chest

On B’s back

They collected on our socks.

 

Stickiness gone

I stand on one leg

Stickers balanced on my foot

Clinging to something on the side

I am imitating L’s appearance

Though my foot is elevated

As I prefer the look

Of a white wall

Rather than the fake wood floor

My leg aches from lifting it up

I thought I was stronger than this

I hold my thigh

I feel weak

I rest for a few seconds

While the camera still clicks

Then raise it again

And repeat, and repeat.

 

During the shoot

The rain comes and goes

Tapping on the window

With the kind of wind that makes

An umbrella fold in half

I saw that this morning

Mine had remained down.

 

Two hours later

I found a sticker on my leg.