mmmmmlxxix

Two Dots* on a Mission

“See those two blips
on the dark side of
the moon,” said NASA.

“They’re part of the mission.

Two dots is all.  See how
they keep blippin’, like

dot dot!  And then a pause.
And then dot dot!  And this
goes on for a few minutes,

maybe thirty dots’ worth,
then they’re gone.  For
good.”  Those two dots.

That was us.  We were
only a small part of the
mission.  Jackson doesn’t

even know it was us, but
it was us.  Nobody’s listening,
it’s just the two of us, hairs

rising from just behind the
knobs atop our wrists.  “It’s
teevee made us, Bob.”  What

a dumb sonuvabitch thing to
say.  “Of course it was teevee
that made us, Harold!  Gawd!”

Harold didn’t like dumb sonuva
bitch voices, nor ambulating
lights that lifted over the solace

like two helixes.  “Is helixes the
plural of helix, Hal?”  Bob got
awkward when those hairs

started standing straight up
like that.  You’d think with
all that astronaut training,

one would by instinct be
able to focus under pressure,
under the most pressure.

The helixes rose in the
distance from whatever
the dust from which they

were rising until both pairs
of the men’s eyes glowed.
Nothing supernatural-like,

except it was that blue-
green neon that was
emanating from each

of those dusty helixes,
a sort of reflection, Bob
was thinking, before their

vessel burst clean and cold.
The two eviscerated blips
knew exactly what to do next.

*and their names were Dorothy Parker & Dorothy Hamill