171 Quotes by Richard Siken

and this is the map of my heart, the landscapeafter cruelty which is, of course, a garden, which isa tenderness, which is a room, a lover saying Hold metight, it’s getting cold.

Someone is digging your grave right now.

[...] the way he pulled his body in, out of shyness or shame or a desire not to disturb the air around him.

[...] his skin barely keeping him inside.I wanted to take him home

You are playing cards with three Jeffs. One is your father, one is yourbrother, and the other is your current boyfriend. All of them have seenyou naked and heard you talking in your sleep. Your boyfriend Jeff getsup to answer the phone. To them he is a mirror, but to you he is a room.

Oh, the body—its hungers, needs, and limitations. You look at somebody and you realize that they’re in there, inside there, somewhere, and how will you ever reach them, understand them?

Someone is digging your grave right now.Someone is drawing a bath to wash you clean, he said,so think of the wind, so happy, so warm. It’s a fairy tale,the story underneath the story, sliding down the polishedhalls, lightning here and gone. We make theseridiculous idols so we can to what’s behind them,but what happens after we get up the ladder?Do we simply stare at what’s horrible and forgive it?

Can we love nature for what it really is: predatory? We do not walk through a passive landscape. The paint dries eventually. We collide with place, which is another name for God, and limp away with a permanent injury. Ask for a blessing? You can try, but we will not remain unscathed.

But damn if there isn’t anything sexier than a slender boy with a handgun, a fast car, a bottle of pills.