--- D A N I E L   N E S T E R

 
 After a premature sundown from a storm
 After touching cracked glass, cutting myself
 After a shirt filled with poison
 After throwing pennies at the foot of a cherub fountain
 After learning the second titles of everything
 After looking in the peephole at a dead girl, her white skin, her brown hair in the leaves by the river
 After a soft pretzel with heavy salt
 After the guard scolded me, pointing at the sign
 After slapping the columns, their cold white stone
 After singing in front of my parish
 After Adam
 After a picture of him with dreamy, well-read eyes
 After tracing crayon drawings of Agamemnon
 After the scary looks of brass horses
 After a confused look, the glimmer of glass
 After a Beach Boys singalong on the art museum's steps
 After tasting a pocket of salt in my cheek
 After a shirt caked in blood and water
 After Elton John's smash hit, "Philadelphia Freedom"
 After small choices of where to go, the muted colors crossing the river
 After buying a glow-in-the-dark plastic saber
 After waving the green light in my sister's face, striking her
 After the sore undersides of feet
 After nuns played Neil Diamond in our living room
 After pressing on a wall with all my weight
 After failing to find out the day of the week
 After the metronome boredom of the mass
 After the dry bones of Pharaohs
 After the knights, the stones in drafty room
 After praying on a metal table
 After touching myself in the bathtub
 After sin, but before Stations of the Cross
 After I fell on my chin in the dark
 After I went to the bathroom outside
 After numerous history lessons on the significance of this day
 After hot dogs
 After I was mocked four times in a schoolyard
 After singing "Fun Fun Fun" to myself
 After "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A."
 After red streaks and kicked-up dirt
 After a Rocky-style run up the steps
 After a woman carried up a jug of water
 After feeling hungry again, dropped from my father's shoulders