GRL
CL Bledsoe on Jayne Pupek
Crows are some of the most misunderstood and maligned birds. They’re considered pests, scavengers, ugly, but they’re vastly more intelligent than most people realize and, of course, what could make them more sympathetic than the fact that they make jokes? Similarly, many of the characters in the poems in Jayne Pupek’s second collection resemble crows in that they are unwanted, scavengers, often damaged characters, but Pupek’s great magic is that she manages to make these characters sympathetic without making them into caricatures. Many of these poems read as though they are monologues imagined while some poor housewife with unrealized dreams stares out a kitchen window while doing dishes, or looks back on a path not taken. The title poem is a moody contemplation on life. It begins, “You ask me to explain the livelihood of crows./I say nothing, only point to the darkening expanse//above where birds saw holes in shapes/ like themselves.” (Pupek, lines 1-5). She continues with a portrait of an almost serene cabbage farmer spreading manure, “I saw his face this morning,//tilted toward the sun, and he looked as if he felt gratitude/ for his shovel of dung, his stretch of land.”” (8-11). The narrator seems to envy this farmer for finding a peace she lacks in her own situation; “In the evening, when you go back to your sick wife,/ I won’t quarrel.” (13-14). She goes through the motions of domestic life: “I’ll stand at my stove and boil//one of the cabbages down to soup.” (14-16). But the peace of the cabbage farmer eludes her. “I’ll look out my window and watch the red eyes// of your taillights disappear down the road,/ while overhead, crows divide the sky into halves.” (17-20). The crows are almost mocking her. What can she do? “I’ll put up my hair, wash my face, and go on.” (23).
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In “Another Love Poem,” Pupek describes an economically struggling couple. Pupek’s sardonic sense of humor shines in poems like this; “Last night, / we ate Chinese and balanced the checkbook/ on our knees.” (7-9). Even though the couple
Mayapple Press, 2010
One Day, We’ll Get This Right: