WE WERE NEVER ON THE MOON
We never went to the moon. Instead we grew roses and fed our neighbor pasta and fruit salad. We never put a man in space. Instead we bought him a suit, cut his hair and drove him to the unemployment office. We never drilled for oil in the Arctic. Instead we sang folk songs to the seniors at the Sterling Heights Care Center. We never went up in a hot air ballon or took a sea cruise among the Pacific Islands. Instead we read to fourth graders at the Beachwood Public Library, a story about a mouse and his motorcycle. We never drove to the capital and threw Molotov cocktails at the court house steps. Instead we held Fiona in our arms and kissed her fevered brow. We never bought a sports team, never wore makeup on a photoshoot, never told Piers Morgan to go fuck himself. Instead we tipped our waitress a fiver because she remembered our name—and that we liked restoring old radios—that one rainy morning when we thought we were completely alone and unloved on this Earth.
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KEN NASH is an illustrator, graphic designer and animator. His writing has appeared in B O D Y, The Prague Revue, Oko Magazine, Bordercrossing Berlin and Revolver Revue. His work has also been included in the literary anthologies X-24: unclassified, The Return of Kral Majales and Flashed: Sudden Stories in Comics and Prose. He is the author of two story collections, The Brain Harvest (Equus Press 2012) and Life Raft (Equus Press 2019).
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Read more by Ken Nash:
Three stories from Life Raft
Story in the September 2017 issue of B O D Y
Story in the July 2012 issue of B O D Y
Interview at Expats.cz