Fly Me to the Moon

Posted by Andrew Semisch in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Friday, November 9, 2018 at 10:52 am

My name’s Harry and I think I’m really scared of dying. I hatched about ten months ago now which, I guess, means it could happen any day now. I know people talk about us, I know about the stereotypes, and they can be kind of funny sometimes. They see one of us circling a streetlamp for a few nights in a row, they say something about it. They think that it’s such a ridiculous concept; being able to hunker down and admire a light you’re particularly fond of for a while, but I think people don’t like to think about how beautiful light can be. They like to think that we’re pulled to it by some sort of instinct or subconscious voice, but lights are really just… I don’t know. If you find a really good one that you don’t think you’ll get bored of, you can fly around it all night and pass out in the morning every day for who knows, your whole life! I never found a light that I liked that much. Well actually, there was this one beautiful neon sign in front of a Chinese take-out place once. I really loved that one. Sometimes I liked to pretend that she was talking to me and singing songs like people or cicadas. I liked this one human song that was about the moon and I liked the moon, so I was interested in the song. It sort of went like um “fly me to the moon let me sing forever more” and then there’s a bit that I forget and then “in other words please be true, in other words I love you” and the song does that a few times before being over. Sorry, I’m not a great singer. I tried to get a cricket friend of mine to play it once but he couldn’t get the notes right. But eventually the store ran out of business. They just left with everything one, day. Including my light.

I remember my last few days with her really vividly. Flies used to come by and buzz around for a bit, but I never got too close to any of them. They always died after two or three days, laying eggs in dog shit out on the pavement, making small talk. “Must be nice to be a moth, having those big wings”. They were always out of breathe from having to flap so much, their tiny wings could barely keep them up. Whenever they’d say something like that, I’d want to reply with… I don’t know what. I think I’d like to see the sun sometime so I’d want to say that they can see the sun and I can’t so… yeah. My eyes are really sensitive so I can’t be out during the day, when the sun is awake. I didn’t even know about her before I saw this sign in front of a human daycare with a big yellow sun on it. She had a big smile and black glasses on, so I think I’d like to maybe try and talk to her. I wouldn’t even have to pretend since she has a mouth. Maybe she’s way up high like the moon so I would have to fly for a while to see her. My buddy Marvin said he flew to the moon once after I told him about that human song but he smelled like fungus so I’m not sure if that really happened. Maybe there are mushrooms on the moon though.

Of course there is always the possibility that she could be the ugliest light I’ve ever seen. One time I was staying in this closet and everything got really hot and I couldn’t really see so I flew out of the house and it was like one huge candle. At first she was really beautiful, I had to fly across the street since she was way too hot for comfort, but she was definitely like in my top ten lights I’ve ever seen. After a little while she just kept getting brighter and it got to be way too much. I hadn’t seen a light before that was too bright. I hadn’t even known that was a thing. Then these other red and blue lights came and they were also much too bright. They were loud too. I hadn’t known a light to make any type of noise before and it was comforting to hear one talk but she didn’t sound very happy with me.

So maybe it’s good I can’t see the sun. Most of us learn to be happy with the moon, and whatever lights we meet in the night. That’s when most of the good lights are out anyway. It doesn’t sound fun being up and about when there’s only one light that’s really around. I don’t think the humans even like her; there’s no “fly me to the sun”. I don’t think I’m going to ever not be afraid to die. I think I’m ok not seeing the sun before I do, though.

Comments (2)

Michal Czapla

This was really funny when I realized that your character was a moth, and the stereotypes people said were memes on the internet. You gave very detailed descriptions of the character and their favorite lights. The singing was incredible. The process of the moth coming to terms with the fact that they are going to die soon was smooth.

Nile Shareef-Trudeau

This is great! I see a lot of improvement from when we first peer-reviewed our monologues. You personified this moth character to be very human-like. The moth's story is very compelling although somewhat "simple" and it makes the reader feel as though they can connect with the moth. I love the little details you decided to include because it made the monologue all the more lifelike.