A Primer for the Small Weird Loves

The poem’s title, “A Primer for the Small Weird Loves,” evokes a casual tone that, when taken alongside the heavy subject matter of the poem itself, appears almost offhand. The poem combines depictions of specific actions and locations with the speaker’s reflections—especially self-reflections—and uses metaphorical language to animate the poem’s themes of confused love and violence, thwarted gay desire, and the psychological repercussions of internalized anti-gay bias. Because the sobriety of the narrative is evident almost immediately in the first stanza, the levity of the title contrasts promptly with the gravity of the storyline to create a subdued irony that lends itself to varied interpretation.

Aside from this (and still other) tonal ambiguity, the title has a literal dimension; it functions as a preface insofar as it suggests the poem’s scope and purpose. Since a primer is a short introduction on a subject, Siken presents this poem as a brief exposure to “small weird loves,” presumably seven of them sketched out respectively in the poem’s seven stanzas. They might be “small” because none of them developed into a lasting romantic relationship, and they may be “weird” because they are gay and occasionally reveal the speaker’s masochistic inclinations.