Under the Influences

This is my brain on drugs.

I'm a lonely man apart from my animals:

Insects

So first it's my brain on bugs.

I loved them even when there existed arthropods longer than I was tall.

I was a little boy with his mind enraptured

Captured

With a net, in a web

Living as pets, raised and bred.

My brain on bugs is a sponge; I'm their student, gradually learning how to speak their languages.

They change my thinking, keep me healthy.

They (the people, not the bugs) say

You're never more than three feet from a spider.

And for that I am thankful.

O}{{o<

I'm a different man when I can't create:

Art

Now it's my brain on paper.

Or wire, or clay, or any combination of media I manipulate to express myself.

Mom showed me as a toddler how to make anything

ANYTHING

If I applied my mind, freely drew

Short pencils to grind, but I always grew.

My brain on art is active; if I begin with no idea to explore it's never long before I make one.

Art is my calm, content away from stress.

I need to work it into every day.

The decision to make art is not always a choice, at this point,

And that never ceases to amaze me.

I can't doodle in the margins.

I can go without, this one time.

I was an empty man before I met Him:

My Life.

Above all else it's my brain on Christ.

I may be the one who controls my thoughts, but God takes care of my heart.

The seat of emotion

Devotion

O to pray without ceasing, to make my will His

Love forever increasing, our gift that I give.

My brain on Christ is whole; I am inspired and motivated by the One I represent to the world.

Who better to alter my mind than the One who built it?

Every morning I say hello.

Thank you, I trust you, I will follow you.

You gave me this brain for your good reasons.