The United States of the Moon

A man in a Pink Floyd shirt fell asleep on a rocking chair on the moon. He had a dream
about the government. The government gave him a salary of $235,000 per year because he
was a famous astronaut. He was building a civilization on the moon. The nation was going to be
called The United States of the Moon. His chair was still rocking as he slept. Fifteen of his fellow
astronauts had come with him to start a civilization on the moon. They were from various Earth
countries, including Mexico, Japan, and Australia. None of the astronauts were very good
at poker. One of them was a saint. The rest were common astronauts.
Then a moonquake happened. The man in a Pink Floyd shirt jumped out of his rocking
chair. He bounced around the moon. It shook for an hour. When it was over, all that survived
were the spaceship and the man in a Pink Floyd shirt. He boarded the spaceship with tears
in his eyes. He flew toward Earth, wounded, but not defeated.

The Skeleton at Bat

A man in a Pink Floyd shirt plucked an azalea from a garden. It was the beginning
of spring. The sun was shining, nicely. He thought about how happy he was he hadn’t smoked
a cigarette in three weeks. He took a deep breath. He drank some water. He decided to take
the azalea to his girlfriend. She said, “Thank you for the beautiful flower!” They embraced.
Then he went home and painted for three hours. He drank coffee. But his paintings
were not flowery at all. They were rather dark. But it brought him peace. He fell asleep
after he painted a skeleton smoking a cigarette beneath the moonlight.
When the man in a Pink Floyd shirt woke up the next day, he rode his longboard
to the Venice Boardwalk. He sold his painting for $150. He considered it a successful day.
He went home and ate and then watched the Dodger game. Later, when he finished watching
the game, he decided to paint a skeleton with a Dodgers jersey, swinging a bat at Dodger Stadium
under the lights. He called it, “The Skeleton at Bat.” The next day he sold it for another $150.
It was turning into a very productive week, indeed. He loved spring. And skeletons. And the moon.
And the Dodgers.

ξ

Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. His poetry, prose poetry, and flash fiction appear in The Acentos Review, Bat City Review, Bennington Review, Cincinnati Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Nation, New World Writing, The Progressive, Witness, and in the Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011. His chapbook of prose poems is forthcoming in Spring 2020 with Texas Review Press.