Reducing Valve

I loosened my reducing valve
and many odd things transpired.

Things were not as they should be
I grew up catholic
my experience relied heavily
on church iconography
and the dichotomy between good
and evil
things shape changed and
friends were seen as things I
have never seen in them.

When I close my eyes I see movies
on the insides of my lids
full "dreams" when away
whenever I discuss things
such as these I get goose
bumps and a chill runs
down my back

the "other" frightens me
because it is just beyond
the pads of our fingers
and who's to say who's behind it?
Descartes' Evil Genius?
Or Archangel Gabriel?

When I chemically altered my
"reducing valve"
(a tip of the hat to Mr. Huxley)
I became privy to many things
better left to the dead and
insane.

Guide or Evil Genius
Angel or Madness
Truly divine or just
an overload of sensory
information into the
cerebral cortex when in
fact the breadth and width
and heft of the brain
(that 90+% that might as well
be tapioca) is not proactive
but rather reducing and reactive
to allow us to better survive
in a hostile environment.