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Bullets, movie-like violence, car rides, stitches and gritty motel rooms form recurring themes in this bundle. The world sketched is grimy and bleak, with occasional flashes of beauty and tenderness, despite violence
The blond boy in the red trunks is holding your head underwater
because he is trying to kill you,
              and you deserve it, you do, and you know this,
                            and you are ready to die in this swimming pool
       because you wanted to touch his hands and lips and this means
                                                                         your life is over anyway.
                     You’re in the eighth grade. You know these things.
       You know how to ride a dirt bike, and you know how to do
              long division,
and you know that a boy who likes boys is a dead boy, unless
                                   he keeps his mouth shut, which is what you
didn’t do,
       because you are weak and hollow and it doesn’t matter anymore.
- A Primer for the Small Weird Loves

Richard Siken his debut bundle is exciting. The American setting, with derelict towns, very much reminded me of Ocean Vuong his novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, and the thematic overlap continues with the focus on gay love. At times bitter, harsh and disappointed, sometimes lyrical, the poems in Crush feel both urgent and true.

Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out is a brilliant poem on love and all the stories and roles we project upon it, even if the outcomes are far from what we expected based on childhood templates of fairy tales.
Violence is also something that permeates the poetry of Crush, giving it a gritty and slightly desolate feel.
I am not sure if I fully agree with the extravagant praise Nobel laureate Louise Glück gives in the foreword, but this is definitely a very readable and relatable bundle, if not very uplifting.

Fragments of poems that I enjoyed:
his skin barely keeping him inside

I wanted to be wanted and he was
very beautiful, kissed with his eyes closed, and only felt good moving
- Little Beast

Oh, the things we invent when we are scared
and want to be rescued.
I Had A Dream About You

We have not been given all the words necessary.
The Dislocated Room