Chapter 31
The Sea Captain's Change
NARRATOR’S continuing the plot
On his boat the Ship’s Captain plays a card game
with the Prince Giant.
Prince Giant bets the Two Wives and he loses!
They now belong to the Ship’s Captain.
He takes them along on his voyages to strange ports.
They perform for the sailors to raise money
for the Ship’s Captain.
However, they want steal away at the right moment.
TWO WIVES
The pennies fit better -
easier to get around -
easier to roll off of his palms.
That’s his coppery sweat clinging always
to us pennies!
We’re fitting smaller
into larger gains.
And betrayals.
As he’s betting fortunes!
Using us.
Rolling us along.
Begging us to do his bidding.
And we do…
Or don’t?
How many times will we have to be used?
Many! Over and over
piling and piling up,
causing trouble.
So many pounds of pennies…
Us.
Dragging him down.
Pennies: over and over!
That’s why we reproduce ourselves
so many times.
To add up.
To add up to being on top
of all the other buyers.
To outbid them all.
And then…
We trickle down and change everything.
We’re changed into good fortune or loss;
and we’ll start over then.
We’re exchanged into the bargain.
And then, exchanged
for food or wine, clothing, olives;
whatever does it for his needs
and so forth.
Because he won’t try to buy.
He’ll try to trade.
Us!
And, by perpetuating magic, we’ll go along.
The Ship’s Captain will exchange his rum
to get us to dance.
He’ll exchange his whole larder of fruit
just for the happy hopping two of us.
Yea. Singing and dancing.
And that’s not only what we want to do.
Yea. We’ll jump all over him
and pinch his cheeks and bottom.
He likes this a lot.
We’ll pull his beard
and kick him in the knees.
That doesn’t hurt.
No, that barely tickles but
he truly laughs!
He’ll later think to have us perform
in port for the sailors.
For a secret profit no less.
Since we’re too small to get anything.
Yes. And, as this story goes along,
possibly, we’ll escape.
Yes, he’ll lose us and we’ll be in some
tropical jungle.
Yes. And we’ll meet some rare animals.
And unusual insects around just our size!
Yow! Yikes! But we’ll get all through this
and return home to our husbands,
who will still be at a loss for time:
not remembering or caring
when we left, I suppose.
I agree.
They’ll not know even when
we stepped out…
Or how…
And what garbage cans from the house
did we use to fly away?
Yea. And what garage tool motor, either,
to get us there to the distant prospect
on the Ladies Club mountain...
That started everything.
Yea. And we left to go around the world!
Thanks to the Ship’s Captain.
And our best acting, singing and dancing!
Chapter 32
In the Mindstream of Money
NARRATOR
In the mindstream of money:
the Two Wives as pennies must seem
to have more value?
They have become aching,
jotting along in happenstance.
Crudely, brazenly the Ship’s Captain has
demanded them to dance in sailor’s clubs
to be paid for being “Live Pennies!”
or “Rash Wild Coins!”.
They’re more exotic than monkeys
or parrots.
TWO WIVES
We’re of great value;
we’ll jump into the fray!
The circle has certainly widened for us.
Multiple faces stare.
Many foreign faces stare all around at us.
We'll dance, we’ll play.
We’ll play pennies.
And search for other coins.
To let us go.
(Quietly, in a whisper)
Perhaps off into the jungle to escape.
But, meanwhile, we’re jumping;
and there’s strange music
(I wish our Husbands could hear it)
and hooting and hollering.
We’re dancing on the bar!
We’re dancing on the floor!
We’re competing
only with parrots and monkeys
and pipe smoke.
The sound of the room is chaos -
a jumble out of focus.
Give us room!
Give us room!
And the chairs are scraped around.
And we’re on the table
next to bottles again,
and half-full glasses,
tobacco bags,
and straws,
lighters and matches.
We’re jumping away!
We’re flipping away!
And the Captain is getting crazy,
drunk and rich
in other coins without faces:
dead, round droppers
to fill up the bill that he rises up.
And we’re worth it all.
That’s in our value
as peerless concert performers
on the bar-room table or stool,
with cards and other stuff
crowding around...
Drooling men, sailors and all.
With no one to take pity on
the poor pennies two!
NARRATOR
The poor two pennies two:
curving all around,
leaping over two,
reflecting brass or polish,
drawing in all the cash,
secure in their men’s heads trophies
(that’s who they are: with the power-figures’
heads stamped upon their chest).
The blankish nickel, dime or penny faces
are not all reflected upon:
men's grimy fingers have polished them;
perhaps, they've used them to wipe up all their sins...
TWO WIVES quietly
We are reckoning that we’ll be saved
in an emergency?
NARRATOR
Or, tossed around,
jingled around,
flattened out
and made to dance.
TWO WIVES
Yes, we’ll stand up and
move all about on our feet:
kicking up, kneeling with our palms out,
curving up overhead,
flipping over, slapping down,
piling up lasciviously.
NARRATOR
Sailors watch and grin.
TWO WIVES, shouting to the Sailors
We’re looking for a whole huge dance now,
with all the money that’s in!
Who’ll put in? Who’ll put in?
We need more! We need more!
Times two.
We’ll make it huge, this porridge!
We’ll pile it on
until we’re a stack ten miles high!
Then, oh dear Captain, you can bag us.
That’s what we’ll say out in front
of the 'international' men.
And, to their 'international' women,
stamped on the coin (like us) we’ll say,
‘Come join us! Dance around, swim in luxury!'
There’s abundance on the table
with the rum, tobacco and gifts of all kinds!
Your individual value will add up
on the table with ours.
We’ll overpower everyone!
Everything will all be spent upon us;
and we’ll never lose all our value.
We’ll float away on the calm…
(End of Chapters 31 - 32)
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