SQN - Sine Qua Non - Issue Two - Journal - Page 44
SINE QUA NON
RUNNER-UP — CREATIVE PROSE
A.C. Koch
Rhapsody on a |eme of Norm Macdonald's Moth Joke
All he could think about was the moon. |ere it hung like a glowing coin in the darkness.
He moved toward it on instinct, as if its light were gravity. Something about its luminous
circularity made him move in his own circles, his rubber-soled shoes pattering across the
noorboards and his satin wings catching the air as he spiraled toward the light. |e wings
didn't feel intuitive for him, but they had to look like they did. Loops on his index ongers
steered the wingtips so that the motions of his hands made them sweep and nap. But even as
he concentrated on making his movements moth-like (erratic yet graceful), he kept his eyes
locked on that gorgeous moon. Because that was what a moth would do; because the moon
could give him the one thing he desired.
He approached the light, Darius the Moth, taking care not to fully turn his back to the
great void of darkness that lay behind him. |e noorboards sloped gently upwards in the
direction of the moon which hovered above the roof of a small house. But with another few
paces, the betrayal set in, and he let it show on his face: this was no moon, this was just a sign.
It was shaped like the lens of a monocle, encircling a single large eye with a blue iris, all of it
lit from within and mounted on a pole that stood beside the small house. Below the glowing
sign was a smaller marquee which read, in nickering neon,
