Two Husbands'... Part 2, Chapter 34

 

Oil Drop Blankets

Witchdoctor's magic

NARRATOR

It all happens quickly

like a baseball’s pitch

at ninety miles an hour but

exponentially much faster.

It happens through blankets,

like ongoing light being refracted

through an opening giant eyeball,

    barely blinking,

that’s the size of the globe!

There’s an arc of tiny blankets

    running through,

    with their oily drops

that propel and lubricate the passage-way

   of the Two Wives.

An arc of tiny patches

that appear and disappear

in a flickering wave:  

that’s what carries them through.

In a moment

of quick reflection,

all the weight the Ladies carry on their feet 

is gone. I don’t know how?

That is the Witchdoctor’s question to answer.

But the Wives, though practical,

are used to special magic by now.

They’ve seen it happen

with the Giant Prince:

he turned them into pennies!

ONLOOKER

Now they’re just getting home

to see their two husbands again.

There Are Opening Mouths on the Blankets

NARRATOR

Blankets lifting like tissues,

    one after another;

inviting a Lady up through

the dark diminuating triangles 

    which are opening up

through tremendous vacuums of space

    like hungry mouths,

tremendously empty - and sucking.

How did the Witchdoctor do this?

What are the powers of his blanket toil-cloth carpet?

I’ve been trying to describe them;

though I’m not familiar with their inner,

oily workings.

(He concentrates on his description)

Weaves. beads and currents

through knotted threads

leading up to an opening

    greedy mouth -

a dark black vacuum hole

sucking the Two Wives through,

    like two peas

    through two,

    dark, fat lips.

Knotted thread-lights

pull them through,

mouth after mouth -

on every carpet displaying,

through the vents, dark circles

powered by incantating oily lips!

I see the Witchdoctor’s face up close

breathing roughly,

creating a dark vacuum searching sound.

The thread-light knots

create a special pattern

on which they will depend for flight

when they go.

So, praise to the makings

of the special threads

by the large Village Women;

and to the meaning of

their specific knots and bulbs

    ringing like bells,

signifying a solitary, personal vacuum journey

    through space

    in a blink of an eye -

set to, by the Witchdoctor

and anointed by his magic oil

of mystery, power and love!

(End of Chapter 34)

Announcing the 2013 Calendar

(front cover)

Curator’s Statement by Rachel Martin
The paintings of Stephen B Brooks chosen for 2013 represent specific moments in the trajectory of the artist’s portrait series, which encompasses 340 paintings over a period of 4 years (2004 - 2007).  The portraits invite one to “Wake Up!” and express a sense of basic goodness that is universally inherent to our experience as human beings. 
The task of curating a exhibition of Stephen’s work at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia was a delight, as I’ve gotten to know the work more and more over the past 5 years (beginning with our first collaboration together on the 2009 calendar “Imaginary Book Characters”).  The exhibition itself included 45 portraits, which here have further been reduced to 12.  The color and composition in the chosen pieces shows the development from the earlier “Wild Faces” series to the final, more mature pieces from 2007.  It is difficult with such a small selection to truly show the full range of the variety of Stephen’s numerous themes and moods, but one could say the portaits here begin very cheerfully and intense and progress into being more spacious and subdued.  I have attempted to extract the pieces that I feel have a unique presence both on their own and in the context of the larger group.  I hope that you enjoy this journey of 2013. 

(back cover)

Please email us at adventurerpress@gmail.com to request your 2013 Calendar (Include your name, mailing address and quantity).

Two Husbands'... Part 2, Chapter 33

Blankets Above

2 Wives and helpful Witchdoctor

(There has been another change of procedure. The Witchdoctor is improvising for the two Ladies with El Sultam’s carpets and the German formulas)

ONLOOKER 

Look! A Wife is are supposed to go up

through those blankets!

NARRATOR

Yeah, the Witchdoctor’s carpet blanket comes down,

sees swiftly through them - and they float upward

through its consecutively imposed reflections.

ONLOOKER

More illusive blankets,

like hallucinating tissues floating up!

NARRATOR

The Wives keep reaching a further hole

to get a lift-off up through - on and on,

as they broad band over the earth

until they reach home.

ONLOOKER

As they broad band through unfolding,

peeling up tissues that are lifting

further and further off, away from each other...

2 Wives’ expanding universe

NARRATOR slowly describing a lifting and descending arc with his hand,

Yeah. And the Wives latch on and pull through and lift up

and appear above - and above - and above -

until they get let down softly at home.

ONLOOKER

They appear to be going through

propelled by an attraction up

from the fitting over of the original carpet

by the Witchdoctor - that causes them

by imperilous magic to revert to up -

    to soar up, to spring fully chastised

    (or chastity-sized, I think)

from the launching table set out in the jungle

near the Witchdoctor’s grass hut.

Witchdoctor’s blanket and Two Wives

NARRATOR

Yes. They are lifted off by the Witchdoctor’s help -

by his woomping down on them with

a splendid carpet seemingly bejeweled

    with strange occult designs

which, like bumpers in a pinball game,

seem to light up and talk to each other,

    ‘cling!’ and ‘clang!’

all along the carpet threads

    sending messages;

until the buttons (sewn in too)

open up a supercharged airy hole

which geyser-shocks the Two Wives

    half-way across the world

through many magnificent, magnifying lenses

appearing like towels or tissues

spread out in infinite succession

    across the sky

    one after the other,

    for miles!

Until the Wives can get down safely

    on to the ground.

Many Blankets

TWO WIVES

The blankets seem heavy

but they turn to air.

ONLOOKER

Is the Witchdoctor helping?

NARRATOR

Yes.

ONLOOKER

The blankets and rugs are lifting up?

NARRATOR

Yes.

ONLOOKER

The Witchdoctor is a friend?

NARRATOR

Yes.

ONLOOKER

So, they didn’t steal his oil-cloth blanket?

Why not?

NARRATOR

So that he could demonstrate ‘insubstantiability’.

ONLOOKER

Who’s insubstantial? The women or the blanket?

Or neither?

NARRATOR

He can demonstrate that they can go up through the blanket

by his waving it down upon them.

It sees through them and they soar up through, somehow!

Blankets above!

He told them, “Get up on that table!”

And they both did. Then he waved

a big, dark blanket over them,

like the eclipse of the moon.

And then, they were flying up through it -

sort of propelled above - projected onward

from blanket to blankets

    that seemed to peel off

    one after another

    like bells ringing in the sky...

And the echo following after,

to the farthest valley going.

ONLOOKER

Like the Wives traveling

until they reach

their destination

to be set down carefully...

(The Narrator looks put off by this response but he’s interrupted by a thoughtful Medical Student who has been attentive to their descriptions)

MEDICAL STUDENT 

Excuse me, I say the pressure of going through

the blankets’ skin or weft

pushes them upwards,

always through to the next capillary

where they’re prepared and palpitated

and passed through

to the next floating entrance valve.

NARRATOR

Like fading echoes of ringing bells

they get farther and farther away 
from the jungle village and the Witchdoctor.

ONLOOKER

The many consecutive blankets

appearing as their causeway in the sky

fade quickly into nothing seen -

    after being passed

    through twice.

NARRATOR

By each lady at a time.

MEDICAL STUDENT

I believe the jungle Witchdoctor

has modeled his special blanket toil-cloth

    (as a functioning apparatus)

on jungle paramecium and their suckers:

    the pumping feelers

    that catch their prey

    and pass it along

by squeezing it up through the system

    in an oily film.

ONLOOKER

Yet, the Two Wives destination, through blankets ,

is not to be ingested anywhere

    but to get finally home!

(End of Chapter 33)