A Fall into Dreaming

I lay in the grass with a vision:

four trees in the corners of my space

their arms populating every periphery with foliage.

Gently swaying to drop beautiful dead gifts

for the ants running across my books and my arms.

I slept in the stillness and subtle motion of autumn

thinking of nothing but conversations that played

as though they had actually affected me.

Dry, locomotive words smearing my consciousness

like a rectangular eraser smears the artificial led.

A dream begins, but I’m unaware until it reaches

‘finis’:

To clean my dirty arms and soothe my swollen neck

I shower avec mon ami,

wiping and washing until she fears her skin

            will rupture and flee her.

She stands two heads above me on a step

the water blurring my visage

like my conversations do.

Entrenched in my muddied perception,

clarity arrives

from the shine off of her dripping calves and thighs.

I see clearly enough to scale these heighths

the legs shudder, clap, and feel thrilled;

there exists an impending fall.

I awoke to her reluctance of my advance

smiling with the luck I’ve had

in clear, conceptual dreaming.

The rain brings red foliage to my bed

with more haste than before:

A thunderstorm has awakened my love of color.

-Grant Durando 

10/2/12

Alvin and the Nightmares

Squirrels are madmen

crocheting a nest to start a fire

if only to have an edifice to throw

granite into.

Marbleized glares of thrill, delight;

time turns you three into criminals.

Screams are useless

for your ears are too small. 

-Grant Durando

~10/12/12

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

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

Split-End Weeds in the Garden

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