Mind numbs
with the invasion of the chemical;
altered states have lodged
in this wry child-like mind

with delight.

Gleefully roaming the cerebral depths and
wreaking their blissful havoc,
they impose their haunting visions,
and numb the control of a mind thirsty for
some other reality.

But the realities have not changed–
only the perceptions of them.
The invader still lurks;
the pain still hurts,
but no longer is perceived
as such,
and relieved of reality
the mind must
bend to contentment.

I explore strange mirth and loves;
actions take
on their new meanings,
and the body sets about
it’s healing,
taking
and revealing
another way to perceive,
another method of relief.

With thanks and a
desperate leap,
I sigh a breath
of joyous nature’s doing,
gasping for the gases
that would be this medicine’s undoing,
and thus am forced
to lift the veil
and the lonely travail
of a joy I have known.

Of a pain still there
without my knowing.

I blame no one
and should prepare
for whatever dangers lie ahead.
For death is just
another way
to perceive a reality
that to some,
in dreams,
must by its
very nature
seem to be

just another perspective
of reality

just as is that to which this drug
has introduced me:

just another perspective
of reality.

A reality where the
physical takes on new dimension,
and the mind lay in a process of expansion.
But medicine a drug,
wears off in time;

death takes a more permanent line.

Having tasted one version of this reality
the one where pain ravaged uncontrollably,
and one in which no pain takes toll,

I wonder about the next in which I’ll know
a version of reality
where from all pain and bodies and medicine
I will be free.

A passing that, inevitably,
all shall come to know,

a part of our spirit’s growth.

A part of me.