Published by Adventurer Press 09

While living in Hermosa Beach California and Boulder Colorado,
1975 - 1977...

Paperback
77 pages in color
2001

The Two Wives... Part 10, Chapters 44 & 45

Chapter 44

What is Changing?

HORSE
They’re coming to me (at the cave entrance)!
They’re coming to me
even if they don’t want me!

NARRATOR
But, later, the Ladies, are praying together
to the Horse who shows up.

ONLOOKER
Ladies praying, instead of preventing?!
What happened?

NARRATOR 
What has changed?

Chapter 45

We Must Understand This Horse!

TWO WIVES
We must understand this Horse!
whose noble features most resemble our own.
Where is he going?
What is he doing?

NARRATOR
The horse is stabilizing his own ground.

NARRATOR, to himself
Quit fooling around!

THE END

The adventures of the Two Wives, the Two Husbands, the Horse, the Women’s Club and other characters will continue to be recorded in future volumes to come.

Portraits Gallery 016

secret dog, 2003

playgirl, 2004

english person, 2006

The Two Wives... Part 10, Chapters 42 & 43

Chapter 42

Horse Theater

HORSE
What am I supposed to do?
Run around naked in circles?
Display my running prowess galloping?
Look at what’s happening:
the Two Wives are meeting the Women’s Club
and I’m left out here
in the center of the Arena.

NARRATOR
How do I feel?
A bit emasculated.
Indeed?

(Shouting to the Horse)

Pick me up! Show me the strength!
Do me well in the Arena!

Chapter 43

Approaching the Women's Club

HORSE
I see the sign (of the Women’s Club).
They’ll let me in!
I’ll be forever taken care of!
fed green grass, yellow hay,
fresh water, fruit
and other such good things.
And they’ll make warm special blankets
for me.
I’ll get some brown sugar
and be washed and combed.
I’ll be especially taken care of!

NARRATOR
But…No, they won’t. . .

WOMEN’S CLUB, to the Horse
STOP! There, at our entrance.
DON'T - DO NOT - come in!
Stay out there, dirty Horse,
until you are perfectly clean ONLY.

NO! Don’t come in at all!
Stay out there.
Don’t bother us.

NARRATOR
A real horse is outside of the mountain.
A real horse is approaching the Women’s Club.
He is sweet, likeable, dumb.
They won’t have him.
They’ll leave him out,
pestering out in the field,
galloping for show to no one,
unaware of his values and
certainly not aware of theirs
(of the logues - laws - of the Women’s Club -
the laws they’re there to preserve
inside the mountain, to have and to hold,
to hang on to at all costs).

Miserable mothers,
won’t they see how good he is - 
that amazing stallion?

That amazing stallion
stands up in the ring.
He even trots around bravely,
nobly, valiantly.

All that - I want for myself - in the Arena.

How will he influence the Women?
By bowing down under their indifference
beneath the cave-entrance?

The Horse in the Arena: a new tumult,
a new breakthrough
if he crashes through the barriers.

It’s a twist (in the plot) outside!
The Horse: in an Arena
or going up to the Women’s Club entrance
expecting to get in.
But then does he see: ‘HORSES NOT ADMITTED’?


(End of Chapters 42 & 43)

Two Wives Paintings on Paper 1985-88, Part 9

two husbands at work

two wives look toward fall moon

two wives see bug shaped cloud

The Two Wives... Part 10, Chapters 40 & 41

Chapter 40

Polynesian Drama

(Ships are in the Chieftain’s harbor and the sailors are betting and trading on the beach)
 
NARRATOR
The Two Wives in a Polynesian drama.
A drama of a brave pirate sailor
and a scary fellow unwisely staring;
threatening the two women like a big hungry snake.

But first, the Two Wives are performing the fabulous Rope Trick
while dancing over a line of coins
that are descending in value.

The fabulous Rope Trick is full of knots
that they undo
as they lift and dance over
the march of coins on the table.

Their naked feet lightly touch those coins.
They just lightly - barely - brush against them;
just barely tapping upon them,
brushing their toes underneath
as they lift up their skirts and hike along, aloft,
over the coins - as if suspended
as on the spars, mizzens and mainmasts of the boats -
as on the intricate riggings above
and around the sails -
like sailors hanging and climbing -
they are that nimble on the ropes!

By pulling and tugging they
unloose the knots and continue along,
holding up above the coins,
whose silver glints
and rays against the sun
blink and temporarily blind them -
but no matter!

This way they get along the table
and inch toward the Captain’s bounty
and all the sailors can collect their dues;
because, if the two Ladies win this contest,
the sailors so benefit
that they shout a grand hurrah!

But, today, for the Two Wives
a tropically warm drama ensues
and sharpens their nerves
like an unfriendly tonic
(that terrible tonic always next to them on the table
that the Captain used - whatever it was?).

Some guy with a huge head
and a most threatening face
that’s mean and darkened,
paralyzed in anger like a jungle viper,
and ready to strike,
is sort of licking his lips over the girls
doing their trick
(looking almost ready to eat).
So, ‘Blasphemous’, the worst pirate,
pulls out that old pistol
and is going to blow him down before
he can even begin to bother those girls…

And why would this despicable creature
with the big head and fearful visage
begin to bother the girls?
I ask: what rare disability, or inability,
does he have to appreciate them? 
and, rather does he seek to undo them;
as they so successfully
can undo those ropey knots
over the money
as they lurch along
above the rows -
above all the sailors’ banking capital
(which has been offered
and soon is to be gained back for them
by the girls).
The weird snake-faced Canadian
won’t let them have that.
He’ll interrupt the Wives
and spin them around like tops
building a huge nestiness of ropes,
all entangling
and strangling…

And he whippersnaps them
‘til their down…

ONLOOKER
Then he takes the money?

NARRATOR
No. Then, before that, he gets plugged.
Or, at least, stopped before he can get plugged
by the ugly retarded old-fashioned sailor
who’s followed him there
and who shouts up…

'BLASPHEMOUS', an old-fashioned sailor
Don’t, lackey! Spaniard!
Dastard! Canadian!
Defunct, depravious missionary!
Solemn loser, don’t get near the winning women!
Don’t get near the lucky bank
with its unending rows of coins
of every color (but mostly silver and gold).
I can’t say what you’re doing here
but I’m here too, now,
and command you, by my
fire-arm cocked, to stop!
Stop your unearned intentions
toward those girls
and their singing money,
their super row of finance:
growing coins
of all colors
over and over
rolling up, laying down flat and accumulating.

CANADIAN MISSIONARY
Oh, come on!
I’m just ogling that,
and have no need to consume
or flirt unfair.
No need to touch or move;
to collect or spend.
I am just a fearful visage of unfairness,
a face of woe,
that you’ve found sick and watching
this contest.

(Nothing happens after this - the drama is ended)

Chapter 41

A Horse Comes In

NARRATOR
I’m so embarrassed that I showed
the Horse that way in Mexico!
I didn’t mean to show it!
I was just practicing.  And he turned out so…
Silly, I guess. Or sweet? Or dumb!

Well, there he is; and, supposedly, on
the walls of the sacred Women’s Club
inside the mountain - seen that way!
And I have permitted it! - even to be
on the cover of this book.
And, I have now become embarrassed about it.

(Pause)

But what do the Women of the Club think
about the Horse?


(End of Chapters 40 & 41)

Portraits Gallery 015

good nurse, 2003

white actor, 2004

boy witness, 2005

The Two Wives... Part 10, Chapters 38 & 39

Chapter 38

Horse Anthem

(In the Chieftain's village the Two Wives converse lazily from their coconut shells about the Women's Club in the mountain)

TWO WIVES
Our experiences are unusual.

Yes, together we came upon the Ladies Club...

We’re invited in...

And, somehow, get down onto the main floor
where the multitude of Ladies are discussing things.

Like the Horse that’s up on the walls
in all the horse pictures.

(They sit up and stare at each other strangely)

NARRATOR, about the Women's Club
The Horse is most important.
“Neighhh!” it goes,
and sends visible shudders
through all the women.

“Neighhh!” it goes,
and they rear up on their hind legs
and worship
(in some way - I’m not sure how yet?).
But, I see, suddenly they are risen to their feet
and looking upward,
their palms extended,
all their faces opened up, gleaming! -
hearing the heavy, weighty breath
through largish black nostrils
streaming out.

They’ve risen up and are singing
or chanting a rhythm: the rhythm
of the Horse Anthem -
with some voices of the high register
sounding above the monosyllabic undertow.
The low voices suggest a layer of the muddy ground.
The high, separated, piping voices above suggest
birds in flight.

LADIES CLUB SPEAKER
Our voices chanting below resemble
a thick layer of muddy ground encircling
our mountain.
Our voices of the higher register, sweetly
piping above, hover like hummingbirds.

Our chanting is the muddy ground,
our singing is the air above;
and here the mighty Horse’s hooves
come crashing down!

Over the muddy path
two hummingbirds float.
They rise up and speed along.
Soon, a gargantuan Horse arrives
and spills all the mud off to either side:
his hooves come crashing down,
his nostrils are a-flare,
in his eye is the vast universe!
We worship him now.

Above our thickening, earthy chant:
the spit and sweat the Horse flings around
and the high riding voices
like flowers around his neck.

We’re safe and secure inside our Mountain Club.

Chapter 39

Keeping Custody and Warding Off

NARRATOR
A dictionary definition:
‘to keep’ - to have by one in such manner that it shall not depart

(like the Chieftain keeps the Two Wives)

The sexy ladies, bedded down in coconut shell halves
lined with downy ostrich or pelican feathers;
are sound asleep.
Oh, the ugly snake comes along!
The psychic Witch Doctor intervenes and rescues!

The vigilant, watching out, looking after, assiduous,
perfectly keeping (care of) Witch Doctor hurries over
to stun or scare that snake who then goes off
toward the jungle common.

The hyper-vigilant Witch Doctor over on the
matting nearby is persuading, redirecting
and warding off the snake!

Witch Doctor: Part man and part woman.
Part leopard and part scary!

The Witch Doctor with images of berries
on his face: black bumble-berries.
And splots. Pink?

(End of Chapters 38 & 39)