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Writer's pictureTomás Tedesco

The Holy Grail Timeline

Inspired by Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

The search for the grail

is the search for the god in all of us.


Initial Instructions:


Make a hole in deconsecrated ground

where X marks the spot.


Descend beyond worldly knowledge

into what's unknown.


Step on death

as you search for the chalice of life.


The flame of faith

illuminates the way

through wet catacombs.


The ground is upholstered

with quilts of live rats squealing

like unborn children.


It is frightening

to know what we could become

had we not survived the journey

across our mother’s cave.


Men in day’s past maketh

death’s engravings shield meaning.


The Chase begins:


Beware of the perceived agents of evil

who are fast in your path,


they can deceive you, specially

when evil walks right by your side,

and she learns


that for a man,

to find the truth is to be

giddy as a schoolboy.


Cut to the Chase:


When flames chase you,

dip underwater.


To burn and choke

underground is

a fate for lesser men.


Cut to a boat chase.

Cut to not cutting

yourself with a propeller.


Cut to land,

where light will reveal

certain adverse truths:


Some angels are prepared

to do everything in order

to safeguard the sacred secret.


In the Next Leg of the Journey:


Follow the knowledge

of your lineage,


let it guide you

as you fill in the gaps


of your heritage

with your own

experiences.


Discover where your forefathers

were headed, before they were

cut short.


Sexual Warning:


If you force a kiss on a German

woman, don’t be dumbfounded

when she betrays you.


Lack of trust doesn’t ascertain

chemistry in a ransacked

bedroom.


Remember your words,

70% of archeology

happens in the library,

5% in the bedroom,

5% in caves,

5% in the desert,

and 15% in the strife for life.


Cut to the Castle:


Disguised,

arrive to the frontier

of evil.


Knock out he who speaks,

“if you are a lord,

I'm Mickey Mouse.”


Enter the father.

Enter men with guns.


“Who is going to save you, Junior?”

“Don't call me Junior.”


Oedipal rage explodes

like a machine gun.

How easy is to take life

when you are angry at

your father.


Clear the first room.


In the Second Room:


There will be a Mexican Standoff,

you better listen to your father

or the wench will betray you.


You don't listen to him and

the wench betrays you.


A Tight Situation:


Father and son are

tied to a chair.

Their quintessential naivete

stares down at the slime of humanity.


Father and son, walking

parallel paths,

slept with the same woman

with different results.


This is how we say goodbye in Austria (smack)

and this is how we say it in Germany. (smooch)


Fate tied us together to our backs,

but we created

an ingenious escape via

a ring of fire.

Escape Instructions:


Lazy-Susan from spy room

to a human barbecue room.

Escape the castle and remember,

justling isn't dead, so don't

bring a gun to a spear fight,


especially if you are a Nazi.


Decision at the Fork


The quest for the Grail is a race against evil

so choose at the fork in the crossroads

between saving a friend

or securing the book of knowledge

residing deep within the lion's den.


Fools are far more protected than wise men

even when they are captured.


The death of a mother

lingers in the dynamic of

two pilgrims venturing into

the unholy land

where knowledge is burnt.


In the Lion's Den:


Expose the wench,

“you claim to seek knowledge

but you stand with those

who incinerate it

who the hell cares what you think.”


For comic relief,

the ignorant dragon

signs their autograph

on the book he should

be confiscating.


It’s hard to be sober

when you are drunk with power.


Zeppelin tension:


Oh yeah, about the zeppelin.

don’t send a man to do an army’s job,

he will be sent flying out the window.


No ticket, no flight.


About the parent and son

sitting uncomfortably

on a zeppelin, talking about

fucking the same woman.

Father says,

"We shared an adventure."


Son says,

"I was the next man,

I wanted you to talk to me.

I wanted to know I was more important

than men that had been dead for 500 years in other countries.

I wanted to know that I could talk to you"

and now

I have nothing to say.


In the same way,

I know how to fly a plane

but not to land it.

I know I seek my father’s love

but I don’t know how to get it

and now violence threaten us both

with a crushing end.


Father says,

"don’t speak too soon,"

as he runs away,

he kills a plane

with a thousand birds.

"Let my armies be the rocks

and the trees and the birds in the sky."


Hardy men want to be soft.

You are meddling with powers

you can't possibly comprehend.


"You can't come second

on this race."


In the Desert, there Is a Horse with No Shame


To be in the desert without

transportation is

akin to the human soul

being disconnected

from a higher power,

"you are as good as dead."


A messenger from god

lies bloodied on the ground.


The angel speaks to the unholy man,

and with their last breath

promises them damnation.


A Holy War


Rages between a horse

and a gargantuan steel beast

where family lies undigested

and hostage.


The pen can be mightier than the sword

but not mightier

than a cannonball shot

at point blank range.


A little bit of advice,

don't fire guns inside a tank,

the bullets ricochet inside and

friendly fire is not so friendly.


Staring at the abyss,


The thought of losing his son

makes the father cry,

and even though both are live

and they embrace,

they remain unable to speak.


The feeling that they are missing

lies deeper

than any textbook, or any

archeological site

they have ever explored.



At the final cave,


the first trial will

make you lose your head.


The forces of good and evil met

and evil shots the father of good

to motivate and instigate


our hero to seek eternal life

not for himself

but for the sake of those he loves.


The first trial


is the breath of god,

"only the penitent man will pass."


The human self must bow down

to the god within you

or die as a mortal.


The second trial


is the word of god

"only in the footsteps of god will he proceed."


Young life walks while old life

struggles to not dry out.


Know what your sacred name is

that it might guide your steps

to a deeper truth.


We all hold the name of god

within us, and

to not transcend is to die.


Let us ignore the latin bias,

and the scholar classism,

as mortals, we are bound by words

to describe the indescribable.


The third trial is


the path of god.

"Only a leap of the lion's head will prove his worth."


Only the selfless,

can make the leap

into the obvious abyss,


only those who love others can

step into certain death

and walk the invisible path

to reveal the illusion:


To face inevitable death will bridge you

beyond your previous understandings.


Enter the final chamber

and meet the immortal saint

the third brother, the protector of the grail

weak and nimble, from 700 years of waiting

for a combat that has already been lost


since nobody can best time.


Evil sneaks prematurely

behind the trail of good.


Another test,


pick the right chalice.

"The true grail brings life,

the false grail will take it."

The wench chooses

and an evil man dies.


The word of god is not shrouded in gold

but in wood

and those who fear death

will find it

before their time.


A carpenter is humble

as the vessel for his drink.

The vessel of Christ brings

a father back to his son.


The final test is

to not cross the seal

with the divine gift.


To cross the boundaries

of the unknown

without God is to live.


To covet God outside of

its sacred space is not allowed.


But of course the wench

gets greedy, and the floor

of understanding collapses

beneath her feet.


With one hand she clings to salvation,

and with the other hand

she tries to reach for the Grail.


The lesson seems to be this,

reach for the life in front if you,

not for the phantom of a cup

that doesn’t belong to you.


The wench held on to greed

and paid the ultimate price.


In conclusion,

if you hold on to the wrong thing

you have more to lose than to gain.

And to make the right choice is to live,

and find your way home.


Indy almost got seduced by the grail

but choose to focus on his father,

and he found his way back


Home.

We are not meant to remain

in the non-ordinary world.


Follow the fool back into normality.

You are not a dog,

you are Junior.

Accept your identity

and go home,

a realized man


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