d a n i e l    n e s t e r

Some Area Outside My Self,
Some Stretch of the Assassination

A Lovely Day for a Motion Picture

This Onus Cannot Be Cool

Some Area Outside My Self,         
Some Stretch of the Assassination

Married to it.  And stumbling.
Royally stick to that.  And wary.
I’m going to send you away,
Away or nearby, and however you
Look at it, you will do fine,
Precious, your clumsy prairie
Fire smile will simmer down in green
Mustard sauce for lunch.  So cool
Down the correspondence.

All you need is a toilet bowl
And a steel wall divider.
And a cow will come to you.
And a chicken will come to you.
And before your coat is off
You will be one more babysitter
Dizzy from my musky scent
Who walks away.

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A Lovely Day for a Motion Picture

Look down and greet me with
shoe-clunks on floor tiles—
unhinge my umbrella

from dried-out midtown—
chiseled, pushed-over, content—
bright-eyed, jettisoned,
tired and humungous,

I remembered your brochure—
remembered oh weekly,
remembered oh you.

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This Onus Cannot Be Cool

So what are you writing
on your forehead it’s
a snippy and perfect way
to think it through this
morning experimental
moments aside.  She said
it’s artistic views
rejected by me
in order of closeness
never relaxed or rude
because we’re that way
already.  Your head notes
loosen up and are
timeframed and rarely
left inactive—Yes
he was small before
he died—But he claimed
he was afraid of a gory
crazy place—And I paid
a price for this Paul
Simon pose I think—
we are the same
we are both kind of funny—
and funny things will happen.

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DANIEL NESTER is the author of God Save My Queen (Soft Skull Press, 2003) and God Save My Queen II (2004), both collections on his obsession with the rock band Queen, as well as The History of My World Tonight (BlazeVOX, 2006). His creative work has appeared in jubilat, Crazyhorse, Open City, Spoon River Poetry Review, Best American Poetry 2003, among other places; he also writes for Poets & Writers, Time Out New York, and Bookslut. He publishes and edits the online journal Unpleasant Event Schedule and is Assistant Web Editor for Sestinas for McSweeney’s. He is an assistant professor of English at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.