Neanderthal Messiah — 197

Ganges River Bank | I

[Guru:] ‘Let me look at that.’

[Reaching back, removing one of his hair clips

And heaping his dreadlocks atop his angled mien

He motions for Iesu to sit over here

He clips Iesu’s hair back

Then washes his hands.]

‘Was this an attack?’

[Iesu:] ‘Yes.’

[Guru:] ‘Long ago, right?’

[Iesu:] ‘I was a boy then

Just before my bar mitzvah

Our man-making ceremony.’

[Guru:] ‘Here at the foot of the Himalayas

It’s 15

But girls can be promised at 8.

This needs attention

This Age’s Philosophy

Of use, productivity, injury and

Specialization

To mine the ores that make the pick.

I’ll heat a blade to apply here & singe this wound.’

[He sprinkled pulverized copper into their fire.]

[Guru:] ‘Breathe this in as anti-infectant.’

…

[Ssssssssssssssssssssss.]

[They both watch the vision

In the steam’s gangrene contraception -

Seeing James, Iesu’s beloved brother

And leader of the Q’Umran sect of Essenes

Doing His work of teaching self discovery, gnosis

Thrown by Philistine thugs of the Sanhedrin

From the Temple’s margin -

While insisting that salvation is institutional.]

[Ssssssssssssssssssssss.]

[Iesu, smarting:] ‘Oh! [wincing] I have another purpose

To change this Age — change Time.’

…

[Later, in His ministry’s watery birth, sailing the Mediterranean.]

[Passing the Isle of Kupros, from a failed Cadiz campaign still stinging them.]

[Peter, a disciple:] ‘Aegean to Aegypt

To the great Atlantic passage at Hubris

If You can fail like that, I will follow.’

…

[Iesu reflects on the water:] ‘Barnasha.’