Then, “You” plays cards with three Jeffs they turn out to be his father, brother, and boyfriend (Stanzas 6-7). One twin pulls over and waits for the other with a lug wrench in his fist (Stanza 4). “You” might be in love with one of them, but the speaker tells “You” not to choose sides yet. Both are called Jeff, but one is more aggressive than the other. The poem opens with a depiction of two men described as twins riding motorbikes (Stanzas 1-3). “You” could also refer to different or multiple men at various points in the poem. The speaker constantly addresses someone (“You”), who could be another man, the speaker himself, or the reader. These scenes combine “memory and fantasy” (Stanza 3), with a few metaphorical images interspersed throughout the poem. “You Are Jeff” is a fragmentary poem which builds its meaning and effect through a series of diverse scenes loosely connected by juxtaposition and repetition. In March 2019, Siken had a stroke, followed by slow recovery, but he began publishing poems online once again in 2020.
He opposes reducing poetry to the author’s biography, and his second collection deliberately disinvites such readings. Siken explains in multiple interviews that he was surprised by many readers’ visceral reaction to Crush and their desire to know more about autobiographical details that inspired his poems. While Crush offers a highly emotional exploration of various facets of being gay, desire, and queer life, Siken’s second collection, War of the Foxes (2015), is a more cerebral investigation of artistic creation and representation, largely inspired by paintings. He is a recipient of a Pushcart Prize, and grants from Arizona Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Siken’s work has been published in several journals and anthologies. It also won the Lambda Literary Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Crush, Siken’s first book of poetry, won the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize and was published by Yale University Press in 2005. He has also worked as a social worker (though Siken refutes this).
In addition to being an accomplished poet, Siken is a painter, filmmaker, and a co-founding editor at Spork Press. in psychology and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona. Richard Siken was born in New York City in 1967 and lives in Tucson, Arizona.
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