Because I love you, and beneath the uncountable stars / I have become the delicate piston threading itself through / your chest...
-- Speaker (Lines 1-3)

Importance: The poem's opening lines contextualize the poem by vaguely defining its setting and justification. The setting is at night "beneath the uncountable stars," creating a sense of vastness. Everything that follows is explained by the loving relationship between the speaker and the beloved.

and in the story is a dog and unnamed it leads to less / heartbreak, / so name him Max...
-- Speaker (Lines 10-12)

Importance: Here, the speaker makes it a point to only name the dog in the story, leaving the other characters (the group of older kids and the younger boy) unnamed. This is because naming someone focuses empathy on that being. Unnamed, the being remains depersonalized. Max is the arbitrary name that the speaker chooses for the dog.

in the story are neighborhood kids // who spin a yarn about Max like...
-- Speaker (Lines 12-13)