Neanderthal Messiah — 196

New Jersey Turnpike Offramp Parking Lot | Dusk 1989

[A young UW Professor turns off the Maserati engine of his Citroën.]

[With inward eyes Werner is still road-focused on his lectures.

Graduate Level — Language Interactions 480

Where he taught students 7 idioms simultaneously.]

[Muttering:] ‘Che, vos desde vosotros. Bride from nymph.’

[Headlights stream past, gold then shift to red.]

[Neanderthal’s invention of the Proto Indo European language -

The root of the preponderance of tongues from

North Africa, Europe into the Caucasus & across to India -

Transported by the newly domesticated horse -

The mother tongue of humanity

Werner hypothesized -

That he and all language had Neanderthal blood.]

[He considered the echo chamber of the Mosse Humanities Bldg

And how spirit and language merged.

What prayers from Neanderthal were uttered!]

[From inspired wall painters

Literally mastering light

To Plato’s cave wall ethics’ shadows.]

[He laughs remembering a Scottish hostess: a table for sex.]

[His trip’s purpose though retakes his mind

His journey

From UW Madison to New Jersey

But in larger terms back to Phnom Penh & the Khmer Rouge…

He sees in red neon above:]

The Luau

Tiki Bar

[Both lit by the sunset and self emblazoned electrons

Remembering a Vietnamese woman, in Phnom Penh

With a .45

Who he was told by Why

After hacking into CIA Langley

That she was a double agent -

And now works inside this road house:]

‘Mẹ’

…

Back at UW Madison | but 1969

[Professor James lectures:] ‘It may be the most radical proposal

In Art — that Milton wrote in blank verse,

Using all of the tools of

Poetry — love for words — for their history, etymology

Onomatopoeia

Words’ look, their ink, grammar, slang, double meaning

Font, foreshadowing, irony, simile, rhythm

Milton was under their spell

To tell the greatest story ever

Of his God -

Invoking the Tribulation in humble request that

His method, study, fluency of literary capability

As academic apprentice to Jesus,

In assailing his eyes with the candled page until blinded

Hopeful —

In Shakespeare’s mellifluous shadow

Seeking the Cosmos’ worthiness…

To set in motion the gears of the Apocalypse

Calling Him back

Serving Him

The Word

As an interpreter of the modern

Worshipping without the mental bondage of rhyme.’

…

[Her tone now suggested to her class:]

‘One word mating with another word.

Is rhyme’s matching sex for Milton?’