5 Poems
by Jeff Encke
Pythagoreans so firmly committed
making love to rich women
outwitted by their victims
happy to impoverish
professional mourners
to put on a show of grief
skimming the oceans in search of
the wind and the waves
spending on the belly
only to find themselves starving
loafing, minding other people’s business
no lack of friars
hunting for the same end
because I, who am
a woman in the right light
so many toiletries, coiffures
so many clever ways
of disguising the eyes
dressed in royal purple
no more than to point out
that men get rough features
from folly
whether to place myself
among irrational creatures
or gloss it over with the inborn bias
of mind
even tyrants
show an attempt
at something
what recompense!
the coarse skin
bushy beards
and other marks of adolescence
a sad life
can hardly be called life
except through folly
no one denies
how childish men talk
to indulge the sages of Greece
who are boozers
masters of revels
people laugh pay a good fee
find some ridiculous quips
to stuff the belly
with hors d’oeuvres
there could be a party
I will leave that to others
dancing and cutting up
to dispel the tedium of living
playing, laughing, as if gods
the mightiest monarchs
make their entry for an hour
even savage beasts
granted life
therefore not without reason
consider how many ways
a single heap
finally understands evil
fools maintain them
pamper, coddle them
those sour wisemen
not far to seek
offer princes nothing to make
harsh truth grate
upon tender ears
if you exclude me
nor the maidservant her mistress
nor the teacher his pupil
nor the landlord
nor the soldier
nor one messmate another
filled with nature
in many ways a stepmother
always at odds
all the endowments
spoiled by the sadness of age
a defect to mortal minds
the sweet salve
utterly unable
but you shall hear
everywhere takes my part
the other hand
indecorous and awkward
Jeff Encke’s poetry has appeared in American Poetry Review, Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, Fence, Kenyon Review Online, Octopus Magazine, Salt Hill and Tarpaulin Sky. He was a finalist for the 2009 OSU/The Journal Award in Poetry and a semifinalist for the 2009 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. He has taught writing and criticism at Columbia University, where he received a PhD in English in 2003, and at Richard Hugo House in Seattle.
