You Are Jeff

The first stanza reveals the poet’s prevailing strategy of combining vivid depiction of physical action with an ambiguous use of the second-person pronoun (“You”) and metaphorical language that reveals its meaning only partially and gradually. Two handsome twins ride their shiny motorbikes, one following the other, but there is a “hairpin turn” in the road, the first apparent metaphor suggesting a turnabout or a crisis. “You,” whom the speaker addresses, is “in love with” one or both of the Jeffs. Perhaps “You” is unsure which twin to love since they have different personalities. One “will want to take you apart, and slowly” while the other “only wants to stich you back together.” Emotions run high. The decision could change everything, and the speaker advises “You” (another man? himself? the reader?): “Consider the hairpin turn. Do no choose sides yet” (Stanza 1).

Instead of moving the action forward, the next two stanzas employ anaphora (repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive lines or stanzas) and re-describe the motorbiking scene while adding new details. This is an example of Siken’s painterly approach. He develops this scene like a painter might, first outlining the main elements of a visual composition and then returning to them multiple times to give them depth and clarify relations between them.