Another Prehistorical Voice is Sounded

The Neanderthal Man Wakes Up

after 45,000 Years

I don’t understand what happened.  I don’t have the words still,

Or even know for sure what is meant by words.  My people sing.

The man and the woman try to tell me I had been asleep for a very long time.

Everything is strange.  It is blurry and unclear as in a dream.

But I know enough to want to resist knowing too many words and ideas.

What I can remember from the time before the great sleep is different.

We did not speak much back then.  We danced and sang

And sometimes we drew lines on our tools and weapons,

Lines and circles  that were part of the dances and the songs.

If I learn too much I will forget what I knew and how I knew what I knew.

Already the memories fade and when I tell the strangers who woke me

And try to teach me their language, everything changes and makes no sense.

All I can do, meanwhile, is laugh, for laughter is what

I miss most of all, the chuckle, the tickle, the gentle smile.

Everything else is dead and dark, an endless, dreamless night