No one ever talks about the day after, because the day after is not a story that exists to be told. The girls appear ashen even in the ethereal light of dawn. They exit in the irenic silence that obscures a lack of repose. A car idles by the curb. Ahead in the liminal order there is a television on. What is playing is a show about Hitler. A man enters and his voice echoes the blustering fuhrer's. Something shatters. I pick up the pieces and the keys so that we can leave. Outside the silence is as austere as the blank panoramic canvas of sky. The wind catches in the branches of the trees. Later I will climb atop a concrete acropolis and the world will look impossibly small. Underneath, an opalescent city will blink innocently up at the universe.
ashen (adj.): pale, gray in pallor
ethereal (adj.): extremely delicate or refined
irenic (adj.): peaceful or conciliatory
repose (n.): rest
liminal (adj.): following designated thresholds, as in timelines
blustering (adj.): loud or arrogant, abrupt
austere (adj.): solemn, severely simple
panoramic (adj.): unbroken or surrounding, as in a view
acropolis (n.): the fortified height or citadel of a Greek city
opalescent (adj.): polychromatic
