Fertility
by Jenna Koch
Marquette University
Jenna Koch is an English and Educational Studies major at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. She will be graduating in December 2023.
Fertility
we paint the French doors over with a quilt,
each fabric square fills the windows— no one can visit us but the sun,
until after the first rainstorm, then we’ll open up all the windows
& let the people pour in.
the wind will shake up the lemon tree, shake off her winter coat & drop
drop
drop
drop
lemons into our laps while we’re sleeping.
I sleep within this fantasy, like
it’s already happened. happenstance— we want the same things, for now,
or else we will bend like birch trees to drink from the same water again.
the water is thin & does not choke me, and we two women bleed the same river.
that is enough to call you sister.
the hum of the radiator anchors me back to earth,
to the compost pile in the backyard, beneath the climbing wall & the apple tree.
my body became a woman
while I was still a child, so I ate 3 fried eggs after school every day.
I tried to replace what was lost;
the yolk that rotted in the core of my being.
but when you eat fried eggs, I want to touch you
because the yolk is soft & because it’s you. I want to
kiss the rot in your belly, pull it out like a loose tooth.
they tell us our bodies rust by the time we’re 35,
but my great-grandmother lived to be 101—
to the state, she was a burden; to the body, she
was a library of sensation.
your breath penetrates
the life in my stomach; exhales the stale air &
births me bloody into freshwater. we are constantly
creating each other. reproduction is a word
that follows me around like a lost child, prodding me
until I turn my head. but my eyes stay forever
pointed at you. your breasts that stand defiant to
a suckling mouth.
the milk we drink is thick & bovine. the lemons
stay young in our laps.
Interview with the Author
What pieces inspired you to start writing poetry?
My sister went to graduate school for poetry. Her work has always inspired me; when I was 15 I made my first zine inspired by one she'd made. It was so small it could fit in the palm of my hand. I still have it. And then my senior year of high school I bought Chen Chen's first poetry book, which changed everything, of course.
What theme do you find yourself constantly writing about in your works?
Recently it's been very visceral— childbirth, death, meat, and love. They remind me of my first poems. But every poem is also about my partner or my mother. Or both. Fertility is about both of them.
What do you think are important elements in thought provoking poems?
This is a tough one, but it's like you know it when you see it. I suppose I don't do a lot of thinking after a poem. I just sit with it and the emotion it brought up. So what creates an emotion-provoking poem? Not pausing to explain yourself, using the form to match your message, and perhaps not even knowing the message before you write. Most of the time I don't.
What role do you think poetry has on our society today?
"For women, then, poetry is not a luxury, It is the vital necessity of our existence" -Audre Lorde