Two Wives
Go Up In The Air Through Rugs
 |
| Two Wives go up in the air through rugs |
NARRATOR awestruck,
Foaming Tissue Command
Director
(the Witchdoctor) stands on rooftop tiles.
He has commanded!
The tissues, rugs and
monogrammed towels
have obeyed.
Everything in the castle is
under his instruction.
His experimental expertise
is now magnificent!
The animating ingredients
of his test tubes
have entered into everything!
A thin oil has cast its
sheen
on threads and towels
that lift off into the sky.
See his monogram fly
and glint in the wind!
The Ladies are going through
it.
Always monogram after
monogram -
trying to reach
the other
side of the world
through towels, blankets and
carpets flying.
That’s what the Prince
Witchdoctor
has signified - putting
holes without teeth
in the reproductive center
of every floating, beckoning
rug.
This is where he compels the
Wives to go -
right through the repeating
pattern
of every diamond shape
that opens up like an eye
or a mouth -
and, there he seems to
create
a tenderizing, centrifugal
autumn wind
alternately sucking and blowing
them along.
ONLOOKER
Yes, through diamond-shaped
tissues -
and not coughing!
They are like two grains of
sand
blowing through the weaves
and getting to the other
side -
from carpet to carpet.
NARRATOR
They’re like feminine
needle-points
seeing the other side of
something solid
after being pushed right
through.
They wake up, gasp
and take a breath!
TWO WIVES
See! He gets us going!
from blanket-towel mouth
to gaping mouth without a
sound.
Except within his belly,
where condensed air,
compacting,
compresses like a jet engine
and whines and whirs
until an all-human steam
comes out
of his eyeballs and ears.
He covers his head with a
rag.
He chants. He incantates.
(They begin to lift off
of the ground)
We are going through!
All the dark vacuum mouths
are opening,
letting us jet through in
the speeding of light.
Set to - like the sun’s rays
through open mouths
ejaculated!
NARRATOR
And all the tissue cloud
carpets
and towels are the same;
fanning out meekly
from one side of the globe
to the other
and laying down, piled up on
their side -
on their right side.
ONLOOKER
And the Husbands go to the
wrong side, unwittingly,
searching for their wives!
Will these two men get
through on their numbers?
NARRATOR
The numbers are sent,
though the Two Wives have
gone.
ONLOOKER
The numbers cannot determine
who is there or not
when they get there - when
they land.
This I know.
Led Over
The Hills
 |
| Trip away from the office |
NARRATOR speaking of the
Two Husbands,
This is how I imagine
that they are let go from the office:
encased, let in - to two
numbers.
Generous Zero and open One letting them in -
up, floating or so they
feel -
going bubbling out
over the office floor,
like a drink let go...
Led over the hills...
A procession of hollow,
inviting numbers,
white, floating like
clouds...
A procession of clouds going
over
the mountains...
A procession of numbers
simply dissolving
into the clouds
going over the mountains -
not keeping back but going
forward...
ONLOOKER
Mountainous clouds, numbers -
all the same feeling -
and getting to the Two
Wives!
NARRATOR
Yes, far away,
over continents,
across globes,
past oceans -
the procession of numbers
gets there
without much time in
between -
singly, simply like numbers
can do -
like sound, like light, like sensations
that leave you and are felt
around the world...
ONLOOKER
Like the sensations of Two
Husbands traveling
and seemingly waiting
to see their two escaped
wives!
NARRATOR
Absorbed by numbers thick or
thin,
transparent or not, the Husbands
stand at
attention and wait -
their sad and solo graph
paper left behind -
their empty, sterile offices
reeking
of wasted mental sweat.
ONLOOKER
The Husbands are free now
to be taken on a ride.
NARRATOR
Their traveling on numbers
is like the first experience
of a
child on a bicycle:
scary speed-coasting,
weightless, defying gravity!
Being a trickster!
A brand new world full
of imaginary thoughts, self-inflating -
not attached to earth!
ONLOOKER
Yet, if spilling off,
very seriously still
attached -
still weighed down.
NARRATOR
So, the balloon numbers
will drop and fall,
touch down, dissolve -
let out two Husbands
and evaporate as numbers -
without hearing thanks!
(End of Chapter 35)
