For a while I thought I was the dragon. I guess I can tell you that now. And, for a while, I thought I was the princess, cotton candy pink, sitting there in my room, in the tower of the castle, young and beautiful and in love and waiting for you with confidence but the princess looks into her mirror and only sees the princess, while Iโm out here, slogging through the mud, breathing fire, and getting stabbed to death. Okay, so Iโm the dragon. Big deal. You still get to be the hero. You get magic gloves! A fish that talks! You get eyes like flashlights!
Richard SikenEverything affects my poetry, every day something happens that changes me forever. Iโm susceptible and plastic, thin-skinned and moody.
Richard SikenIโve been rereading your story. I think itโs about me in a way that might not be flattering, but thatโs okay. We dream and dream of being seen as we really are and then finally someone looks at us and sees us truly and we fail to measure up. Anyway: story received, story included. You looked at me long enough to see something mysterioso under all the gruff and bluster. Thanks. Sometimes you get so close to someone you end up on the other side of them.
Richard SikenTell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. These, our bodies, possessed by light. Tell me we'll never get used to it.
Richard SikenAll night I streched my arms across him, rivers of blood, the dark woods, singing with all my skin and bone ''Please keep him safe. Let him lay his head on my chest and we will be like sailors, swimming in the sound of it, dashed to pieces.'' Makes a cathedral, him pressing against me, his lips at my neck, and yes, I do believe his mouth is heaven, his kisses falling over me like stars.
Richard Siken