Khonsu is the ancient Egyptian god of the moon, time, and healing. His name means “traveler” and may refer to the moon’s nightly journey across the sky.  [Complements of A.I.]

Big Daddy Khonsu could be watching you, too.

Wednesday 24 July 2:30 A.M.

I snap away like I always do. The moon’s shining through my bedroom starboard window. Not a moon in full repose. A cop’s dagger-light Moon. A searchlight. The Cop just pulled me over drunk. I’m driving home from Mona’s Gorilla Lounge. Me and The Kid. We’d been Hanging with the Lesbo’s cuz I’m too stupid to know better or maybe it’s just cuz I lost out at Margaritaville’s next door while Crowbar, AKA The Kid, he just needs some action, so we put the make on Mona’s girls and they aint taking shit from punks like us. One of them slams her pick-up truck into reverse and floors it but The Kid he dodges the bumper in the nic of time. Nothing to do now but drive around drunk….

We don’t get far. It’s a Capitola Cop pulls me over. Now this cop, he’s got his searchlight right smack in my face. The Kid’s not moving. He’s passed-out with his face smeared into the passenger window like a lunatic. The cop shines his big stick on the Kid’s face.

“What’s wrong with your friend?”

I could tell him about the deranged Lesbo at Mona’s Gorilla Lounge or I could tell him about what the moon does to your head after a hot night at Margaritaville’s. Or I could…I just shrug…

“Why don’t you step out of the car for me.”

Actually, this is not a Capitola Cop’s searchlight. This is the genuine moon.

Shining through my starboard window.

That Tola Cop’s light was fifty some odd years ago.

Funny how Fifty years ago can feel like yesterday.

The Kid, he died a few years back. Coming home from work or somewhere. Driving down the road like any other day but on this particular day his heart abruptly stopped. He managed to pull over like the cop pulled us over so long ago. Pulled over and managed to stop the car, and then…

“Why don’t you step out of the car for me,” Old Cop Death asked.

Right there on the freeway embankment. What was he, Fifty five, maybe fifty six? That’s right. The Kid never got old. He made it to middle age with a pot gut and a bald dome, middle aged but no yet old. He never made it to seventy.

The Kid, aka. Crowbar, never made it to sixty!

He looms, now and then, like the moon. He’s waiting in the wings, like the Egans, like Radar, like plenty of others from my youth never made it to Seventy.

No, this moon, this moon I just now snapped with my phone, this old boy, I’ll call him Khonsu, he’s just traveling across the sky and I’m just blink’n awake at this moment, staring at him, thinking back to the kid and how he dodged that Lesbo’s bumper…

While I’m laying here, under the genuine moon, a thought comes to me:

All things into the maw must pass…

Pass? Pass? Pass where? The Maw? What the hell? Where’d I come up with that? It’s two thirty a.m. for christ’s sake. I come awake and it’s always like this. Me laying here. Thinking weird shit. My head clear as a bell. Blame it on the moon. It’s the moon’s fault. The Moon’s Gloom’n me!

ALL THINGS INTO THE MAW MUST PASS…

Best to roll over and try and get back to sleep. I can do it. I always do it. Forget the Maw. Pass into that later. Or maybe I’ll dodge the Maw. Anyway, best not to think about it. I’ll just lay here and think about the Moon. The good old Moon of my youth. Think about a rich little lady used to take me home cuz she liked em young. Think about her. What’s her name? I don’t remember. Oh, yes. Now I remember. Kathleen. Middle aged lady. Took a shine to old Gloomy, back when he was a kid. Met her down in Puerto Vallarta. She’s gotta be at least 95 by now.

Into the Maw we all must pass!

Christ!

I drift back to sleep

Like I always do.

Come awake in the bright sunshine.

It’s a new day.

I got plans.

I’m working on turning this Minivan into a Van Lifer’s Van.

Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Say goodbye to Scruffy and hang out in my MiniVAn. Drift around. Like Khonsu. Drift around and let my mind wander where it will go….

Sooner or later Old Cop Death will ask me to step out of the van.

But not just yet.

Keep yer fingers crossed old Boy!!!!