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Several Tremendous

Richard Siken

—angel of crowning and angel of breaching, angel of leavening,
angel of grieving; angel of elbow, angel of bright, angel of terrible,
monster of terrible; music and terrible, a big small music and several
terrible thousand tremendous; blot everything out, the stars, blot
everything; stop saying broken, stop saying broken; angel of
broken, angel of broken, angel of broken, angel of broken; angel of
headlights, angel of soap, angel of telephone, hurry red telephone;
even if my mouth is closed, even if the song ends; soup, glove, milk,
chalk, raise the dead, finish the thought, cinderblock cinderblock;
monsters of terrible, raise your tusks; faucets of terrible, ignite the
aqueducts; the ghost of sleeping, the ghost of thieving, the ghost of
silence, the angel of silence; angel of silence, angel of silence, angel
of silence, angel of silence—

From I Do Know Some Things (Copper Canyon Press, 2025) by Richard Siken. Reprinted with permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.

Richard Siken

Richard Siken is the author of I Do Know Some Things (Copper Canyon Press, 2025); Blue Jupiters (Copper Canyon Press, 2021); War of the Foxes (Copper Canyon Press, 2015); and Crush (Yale University Press, 2006), which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award in 2004. He lives in Tucson.

About Richard Siken

Themes

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Albondigas

My parents took me to Red Lobster to tell me they were getting a
divorce. Parents always take you to Red Lobster when they need to
tell you something awful and important, like failure. They figure if
they’re going to ruin a restaurant for you, it should be somewhere
lame, like Red Lobster or Olive Garden. We went to Red Lobster.
They couldn’t bring themselves to say anything. I was confused. My
brother, visiting, offered to tell me. He told me. I didn’t take it well.
To calm me down, he tried to read “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” to

Richard Siken

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Poetry

When I was in the Secret Service I would talk to my wrist. It was
part of my job and I was very good at it. I said Breaker breaker. I said
The Jackal is on the move. During the day, I kept everyone safe. At
night, I dreamed of standing very quietly next to doors. To work
at the White House one must be sophisticated and intense. One
must be dedicated to turning the knobs and lifting the pens that
make the laws. One must anticipate, relentlessly, the unanticipated.

Richard Siken

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Real Estate

My mother married a man who divorced her for money. Phyllis, he would say, If you don’t stop buying jewelry, I will have to divorce you to keep us out of the poorhouse. When he said this, she would stub out a cigarette, mutter something under her breath. Eventually, he was forced to divorce her. Then, he died. Then she did. The man was not my father. My father was buried down the road, in a box his other son selected, the ashes of his third wife in a brass urn that he will hold in the crook of his arm forever.

Richard Siken

2020