from XYZZY

Andrew Durbin

 

 

I watch the flood go by

 

what does the alphabet spell?

 

the sunlight doesn’t stay long in my windowsill

 

I strive to seize the inmost Form

 

his wheels remain my symbolic antecedent

 

they hover in the afternoon sky

 

I am reminded of you

 

who is Juggernaut, and who is Charles Xavier?

 

she backs out of the bedroom

 

I have a hard time seeing anyone play Bardot but Bardot

 

small like a flame, but resembling a fire

 

do me a favor

 

we love to watch you walk among us

 

winter is forceful here, it breaks the better part of the year

 

we searched for clam shells at the beach

 

I am a coral maid

 

my flowers refuse their vertical growth

 

London is faraway

 

we search over Reykjavík

 

the girl went into the corner to cry

 

would you consider this moment historic?

 

the focal point produced the most tension

 

no concessions except when necessary

 

the cars move along the grid

 

patterns ascertain

 

clouds are very cautious

 

boys are full of shit

 

you remember growing up in South Carolina

 

nothing is different after, say, two years

 

LOVE is the title of my next book

 

Mont Blanc isn’t so great, everyone knows that

 

do you like the sound of my voice?

 

carefully, the system expands its definition

 

I include you in my letter

 

the waves are in full retreat

 

 

~~~~~

Andrew Durbin's work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in Washington Square, Antennae, NAP, >kill author, and elsewhere. With Kit Schluter and Allen Edwin Butt, he edits O'clock Press and its journal, CLOCK. He lives in New York.