The entire history of human desire takes about seventy minutes to tell. Unfortunately, we donโt have that kind of time.
Richard SikenImagine that the world is made out of love. Now imagine that it isnโt. Imagine a story where everything goes wrong, where everyone has their back against the wall, where everyone is in pain and acting selfishly because if they donโt, theyโll die. Imagine a story, not of good against evil, but of need against need against need, where everyone is at cross-purposes and everyone is to blame.
Richard SikenKnot the tie and go to work, unknot the tie and go to sleep. I sleep. I dream. I wake. I sing. I get out the hammer and start knocking in the wooden pegs that affix the meaning to the landscape, the inner life to the body, the names to the things. I float too much to wander, like you, in the real world. I envy it but thatโs the dealioโyouโre a train and Iโm a trainstation and when I try to guess your trajectory I end up telling my own story.
Richard SikenA man takes his sadness down to the river and throws it in the river โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโbut then heโs still left with the river. A man takes his sadness and throws it away โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโbut then heโs still left with his hands.
Richard SikenYou're trying not to tell him you love him, and you're trying to choke down the feeling, and you're trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you've discovered something you don't even have a name for.
Richard Siken