Squares Series 04

Two Husbands'... Part 1, Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Numbers Through the Graph Hole

2 husbands and the graph hole

(The Two Husbands continue their observations of the graph)

BIGGY

The numbers simply lose their grid -

their grid place - their graph square.

Loose black lines waver

    and fall away.

Heavily inked Numbers

    float up;

they move toward

a centrifugal source hole -

a vacuum liberating lineal hole.

SMALLY

They move toward the lines that suck them in

down a hole!

    A sort of square place

    that has breath

    sucking straight down

    into our wall.

BIGGY

Look - the numbers can tumble

or they stay straight up.

SMALLY

They have the sense of marching,

    then diminishing,

down the black hole.

BIGGY

Our numbers - first enclosed;

    then set to each

    simply reduce

into the perfectly compacting lines

    to nothing - not even a zero

but underneath or beyond one, if possible!

Can we go there?

SMALLY

Absolutely not.

BIGGY

This reduction scares me.

SMALLY

The numbers progress on the charts

    is diminished.

They’re entering a category

    of serene extinction.

They’ll fall off into the eternally solvent

    black gas.

BIGGY

How did we start that?

SMALLY

They’ve been pushing toward it

    all along;

sure to combine, surrogate,

and dissolve  - freak out - be subsumed

into the special black

    creator pile.

BIGGY

Where?

SMALLY pauses,

That’s escaped me!

But we see it happening

here in our workshop.

BIGGY

Right on the wall.

It’s going there!

We didn’t plan it this way.

SMALLY

I know. It just appeared!

BIGGY watching the numbers move,

Receding, diminishing -

smaller and smaller,   

reducing into black gloo;

black goo caught in the pocket in the wall.

And passing through this -

not turning into numbering angels

or un-numbered angels...

Just worrisome in the toil, the boil,

the glue pitch of black!

SMALLY

There they go!

Our numbers that we’ve set up

    don’t change.

They don’t change as they go through it -

through the graph pitch -

the dark rectangular hole

    pressing in, spreading,

turning all numbers to glue pitch

    like tar.

BIGGY

Like jam.

SMALLY

Like jam for tortes.

BIGGY

Like the heavily counted on jam

for tortes.

SMALLY

And the heavenly counted upon jam

behind the stars and universal things.

BIGGY

Encounteredly, numbers.

SMALLY

That spread filling in behind.

There, where all the dark numbers go!

BIGGY

And we’re not pushing them in.

SMALLY

No, they’re self-realizing and going

    in on their own.

They’re following up on going out

    along the way,

hosted and held in the grid pattern;

substituted there, standing up

and entering in upon a reduction.

BIGGY

Shorter, shorter - squished together

within themselves to dots -  dots only,

that we can see or not see at all.

two husbands and graph hole

SMALLY

Disappeared, merged

in a glue-mass black.

Through a square or a rectangle

they are absorbed and consumed.

BIGGY

Boldly, they are all merging together.

‘Somewhere’ we think.

SMALLY

The grid pattern points in

and contracts evenly and proportionately.

BIGGY

Yes, the horizon line comes here

to swallow all our graphing totals up.

SMALLY

The dot in the center

comes forward on our wall

and sucks in every

gridlocked square,

    squeezing

    and reducing

all sharp corners to mush, to glue.

There, there’s the soup!

And all our numbers contained in it...

BIGGY

And we’re not getting anything...

Or going toward that!

SMALLY

We’re pausing there in a

square on a grid line tall;

as if we’re part of a move in a game;

but the outcome is already fixed.

BIGGY

All our created numbers are moving;

but not like us.

They’re descending in size into a

    nothingness

that’s taking over the wall over there -

    our grid.

SMALLY

That’s a labyrinth.

BIGGY

That’s a disappearing function

down into toil and trouble

where all numbers go -

    the broth

    out there!

(He gestures wildly toward space)

Note To Readers: While the Two Husbands are observing the movements of their graph on the wall, the Two Wives are in Mexico pouring Don Pedro rum down the hole at the top of the Women’s Club mountain! The Ladies of the Women’s Club will soon be leaving the mountain like ants in a frenzy.

(End of Chapter 8)

Portraits Gallery 021

A Friend, 2002

Handsome Dave, 2004

Spanish Portrait 1, 2007

Two Husbands'... Part 1, Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Latched on Locations 

 

2 husbands at work in New York

NARRATOR

While they work

the Husbands have little smiles

because they know that they

really aren’t doing anything! 

They have little grins in their offices

around the numbers; while they are

handling the numbers. 

BIGGY

We’re around numbers all day

and up on our graph paper they go;

yet, we are accomplishing nothing, zero? 

SMALLY sneering at numbers on the charts,

Because they are fooling around! 

NARRATOR

How do the Husbands get out of this?

What is the force that removes them from it?

What is their salvation? 

The Two Husbands stand back

and adjust their ties or robes

to consider the ill-fated totality

of their own private numbers

bunching together there on board,

    around their desk

    or over their heads

latched to the graph chart,

in the crisscross - a perilous net! 

SMALLY

Our numbers are moving in there,

finding a place, square, next to each other. 

BIGGY

They’re stiff floating 

o’er our spacious square-ribbed skeleton! 

SMALLY

They are crowding in

becoming latched - latched on locations. 

BIGGY

And then, they’re popping out

like corn kernels puffed up -

not to eat and doing no good! 

SMALLY

They’re bouncing on our

tables and desks

disturbing papers,

ruffling their edges

in a sudden breeze. 

BIGGY

And we’re losing

our reference place there. 

SMALLY

Yes. The pages are turning over

and our careful, abstemious figures

are reversed and totaled upside-down;

    their numbers lost -

    fallen out

    like peas out of a grate. 

BIGGY

Like a rock collection of precious minerals

poured upside-down. 

SMALLY

Or, like marbles rolling all over. 

2 husbands experimenting

BIGGY

And, no, we can’t chase them.

It looks like they stand up

by themselves in a jumble

and fantasize on the table. 

SMALLY

They’re fantasies collecting together

but meaning nothing. Especially, when 

they unmentionably tackle each other

and end up in a heap.

BIGGY

Orgiastically! 

SMALLY

But meaning nothing. 

BIGGY

Just stuck on to their own forms -

blackened outlines stiffened forever

like magnets. And this is our work, our job.

And it sucks! 

SMALLY

So, we’re out on a limb here,

so to speak. 

BIGGY

We’re at loose ends without a job. 

SMALLY

Not even contemplating a ‘meaning’ to it. 

BIGGY

Or, with them, the numbers,

gone all haywire crazy!

Out of the Numbers Basket and the Super Egg Timer

(End of Chapter 7)

Published by Adventurer Press 10

The Three Naughties features four independent outdoors kids on an exciting adventure away from home. They encounter a ferocious bear, a wild waterfall, a wounded deer, a wonderful beaver family and an amazing puzzle! The Naughties learn to spontaneously help each other out during their adventure and to carefully listen to the wise and friendly advice of the animals who share their magical world.

Paperback
69 pages in B & W
2003

Two Husbands'... Part 1, Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Helpless Useless

2 husbands at work

 

BIGGY

The numbers are flying everywhere!

    Outside, inside,

    on their backs,

    on their sides, all around,

    upside down and so forth.

Sometimes in a smoke they are

filling up the room.

SMALLY

Now they’re coming off of the graphs

out of the smaller black squares

    and they’re enlarging,

    getting bigger,

    blaspheming -

    getting out of hand!

BIGGY

That’s why we are fatigued and exasperated

and can barely hold on.

Even though the straight number profiles

are crystally clear, outlined in black,

we still don’t know what to do!

SMALLY

Because all the numbers are conglomerating in chaos;

bunching together. And their number stick-legs and arms

are sticking out of piles like jigsaw puzzle pieces,

without rhyme or sense.

BIGGY

What do we do with these piles?

Sort them out? Pull them apart?

Senseless and hopeless it seems;

because we cannot use the numbers for anything.

SMALLY

Nothing is doing any good!

BIGGY

Earlier today some of the numbers popped off

and we handled them. We picked them up and

examined them.

SMALLY

And they were nothing but numbers!

And little good now

could they do for us.

BIGGY

Who are missing our wives.

SMALLY

Yes, missing our wives!

BIGGY

But look at the manipulating numbers!

Now, like portals of straw, they are mocking us!

SMALLY

And how many thousands of men and women

behind us, coming up from the past,

have learned all the numbers’ secrets

and passed them on? How extraordinary!

But we won’t do it now, because the numbers

that we use are flying around the room!

BIGGY

Like buzzards, like flies,

like over-heated cement blocks

(but not of danger, just useless and clunky).

SMALLY

And as stupid as us!

So, we’re stopped.

BIGGY

I would say stuck!

Looking out at the window

and at the free birds

    and children -

at the washing and the laundry,

    the tree leaves, the sun -

and wondering seriously

    in a cold panic,

What are we doing here?
 

2 husbands at work

Our papers of precise but obstruse symbols,

confusing to others, are shuffling.

Our drinking water is all used up.

Our numbers just like that -

like our empty water pitcher - are all used up!

We’re useless, helpless husbands!

Not earning a nickel anymore.

Not saving the Universe

but being argumentative pigs,

useless conjecturalists, questioners

    and imaginers,

trying to qualify the Universe

and say what it means.

And it means, just now, to us:

THAT WE MISS OUR WIVES!

that we Husbands are unified

in sympathetic spirit together in this room

and SHOUT THIS!

(They look at each other seriously)

So where do we go now?

SMALLY

Out the door?

(The Two Husbands do not leave the city.

They return to work the next day)

(End of Chapter 6)