Posts: 128
Threads: 1
Joined: Mar 2016
Full Circle
Not like a black powder musket’s ramrod
pounding it home, but the message was still
clear when I was a kid – there was one and
only one god– a mean, unpredictable fucker,
though they never explained it in those words.
But we knew – the snakes, the plagues,
a thing called ‘the bomb’, and Viet Nam.
Then weed. Presidents, Preachers and
Generals all said it was God’s war to win, but
weed, they claimed, was the devil’s tool.
Same thing the bastards said about Rock.
So it was like Positively Fourth Street
for the time it took my buzz to kick in,
to Break on Through to the Other Side,
to give my notice at Maggie’s Farm.
Paul preached to me and others about
reaping spiritual benefits, about learning
the best ways to find religion while high.
My first tests of his views were disciplined,
and for while, you might even say religious.
For me and then my kids, the Tooth Fairy
proved to be the weak thread in the fabric –
the first domino to fall. Easter Bunny followed.
Then God, Government, and the Generals –
and what the fuck was the deal with evil, anyway?
Then for reasons unrelated to this narrative
I just got off, somewhere, out in the world.
Strange thing, though, I learned along the way
about other gods - Junius, Thor, Apollo, Ra,
Bacchus. Gods of different textures, talents,
temperaments. Interesting fellow, this Bacchus.
And I thought gods must be able to choose where to live.
Swell places like Olympus, or the clouds, by a stream,
or deep in the blue mountains and the mists above.
An island, too, or on a Cheeto or cucumber slice,
thought I couldn’t imagine why.
I heard on TV once about Garden of the Gods in
Colorado and remembered that when I saw the exit.
At the turnoff stood a new store, the rainbow sign
announcing Maggie’s Farm – a freshly authorized
cannabis dispensary. And life took a new turn.
I began to believe again, and felt myself enlightening,
my consciousness noticeably rising with the elevation.
Then I saw - Giant Footprints. Then Kissing Camels.
The Tower of Babel. Pulpit Rock and Three Graces.
And finally – Cathedral Spires. Garden of the Gods!
I hope the ‘intelligent design’ idiots never see
these natural rock edifices, which each suggest a
sculpture contest between the gods, laughing and
cheering each other, each new arrangement of rock
more amazing than the next and the last.
I had thought on impulse to grab the chance to re-test
Paul’s theory and so had walked out of Maggie’s Farm
with ten Turtle Brownies from Love’s Oven, each
containing 35 calories, 2 grams of fat, 4 grams of carbs ,
and 10 milligrams of Sativa THC per serving.
I was cautioned by the clerk to not get impatient
and eat more than one, as they take an hour
to kick in. I didn’t tell him I am a seeker on
quest for the spiritual center, and that I would
soon be eating all ten at one sitting, despite the
10 grams of fat and 40 grams of carbs.
And now here I am, sitting on a stone, looking
at a stone larger than the Golden Gate Bridge.
It has been 67 minutes when understanding starts
to seep in like new morning – I realize I got suckered
by the Tooth Fairy element in all of this–
If the gods like to play, to go to the fitness center
and have lattes, maybe they like to garden too, and
if they chose to garden, they would assuredly pick
a cool place like the Garden of the Gods, but it’s
not just a sculpture garden as I first thought.
The place is a real garden where they cultivate
a special gift for us, and I think Bacchus is somehow
behind all of this, the party part, and how they
compose the cannabis, arrange, then share the THC,
and fuel the irony by supplying Maggie’s Farm.
At the hour & twenty-five minute mark I feel myself
breaking back on through from the other side,
and I am humbly telling you that after all of these years
from somewhere, out in the world, I am coming back.
