Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Excitement Curves Earthquake’s Architect of Mind


I am the architect of mind
tipping off structure, shaking.
Uncontrolled motion leads to profit.
I am the architect of mind.

Turtles can change from doves to sea monsters
swimming with gentle wings, flying with peace
or encroaching on the foamy curls of the sea
with blinding tail whips and silent strangulations.
Whose to say which I mean to signify
they’re all your monsters
            I’ve just introduced them.

I have my own demons and snakes that swim
sliding over my feet so I don’t feel them
until I’m snagged and trip over what seems to be
myself.
Snakes and turtles will send me to Hell.

-Grant Durando 
10/4/12

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Blue Madness


Blue madness enveloped me all at once. My eyes grew out of my skull and into the foyer, burning Satan’s own velvet red.  Walls were at once perpendicular, yet parallel, and I felt nauseated. Blue oceans rose to drown me, but I was on a cruise ship. Not driving of course, but protesting, distracting, and playing. The games were mild but the consequences severe. However, genetic consequences are more so, I think. So I awoke blue and sweaty. No one was there, only a fly in the window, a spider on the wall, and me in my underwear laying on top of my sheets. 

Marbleized Ice Chips


Her ice cream and teddy bear
are my journal, my wine.
Leaning back, you hear a crack
we’ve both fallen out of a mountain.

Don’t envy the sculptor
for the curves of his profit,
the marbleized skin of his product.

Rather, induce crystallization
of art; art is everywhere.
How to freeze it
is the problem.

To the sculptor we vainly suffer false forms
idealized pieces of rock whom we vainly
contradict in our flesh
in our chips.

-Grant Durando
8/27/12

The Pill


Once he swallows
he is gone.
The capsule rolls down his tongue
crossing the digestive Styx and paying
a lucrative sum for it’s journey.

Rubbing down
a perforated pipe
he unknowingly massages
his gift down, down to the suburbs
of his soul, where acid burns
but living is relieved; only when
compared to the northern urban density.

Dissolving,
pointillism is more accurate,
falling into cracks and holes
built for blood diamonds
and muscular gasoline
dissolves and disappears
into an invisible warrior
yielding familiar friends.

Circumscribing limbs
torso anaesthetized
due to the solemn guardianship
of his capsule’s new home.
To the city, northward,
his chemicals run and meet
an acquaintance who doesn’t prefer
the stories that are told.

Once a pacifist,
now a warrior,
the acquaintance is gone
he becomes the larger capsule.

-Grant Durando
8/23/12

Friday, August 10, 2012

Split-End Weeds in the Garden

Gardens desire work,
time,
resources.
What happens to your garden
when you're lacking,
deficient,
dehydrated?

An Urban Affair


A daughter is born           
out of metal and urban fornication;
bred life into inanimate women,
children, and young men.

****

Bistros and cafés
wrap corners in the way
you’re swallowed by the signs
            concerning your consensual love.

Mutually developed
musings drive every step
running over the cobbled street
that hurt your feet
            and you love it
            and you love it.

                        In my city I’d let you
                        lean on me.
                        Take your shoes off,
                        clean your feet.

The subway wraps
sandcastles and tiger tails
around and around
‘till we all get dizzy.

(and you love it
as do I)

-Grant Durando
8/9/12

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Wife


Short word
long last name
makes me fast asleep
and wakes my warmest parts.

Dying in life
relieves me of choosing
to be alone in my heart
alone in my bed.

I make the choice
to set sail
with a curtain-wrapped mast
perfect for crackling seas
that burn, like oils on the surface.

Catch my curtain
I’m drowning in you. 

-Grant Durando
7/12/12