Jemma Leigh Roe
Poetry
Jemma Leigh Roe is the author of Running with the Hare, winner of the 2024 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition. Her poems and artwork have appeared in Sonora Review, Redivider, The Baltimore Review, Northwest Review, and Tupelo Quarterly, among others. She holds a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University.
Ma
The memory of your hands, gutting
whitefish, fresh-eyed
after the storm. We were hungry for
iridescence. Lit by the amber sun-
set in the oven, its iron mouth
opening wide, steam billowing
to meet your bowing head. You bring
this warm offering in mother-of-pearl
a glisten of sea and sky, as I watch
you collect fishbones in a small bowl
veined with silver. We are more water than
bones, you say, with arms that flutter
like terns to chase away flies
from our table of daily bread.
I mine this memory—
a mother lode of hours
watching clocks with missing hands
packing clothes, linens, china
your miniature biographies
bundled away, and yet—
what remains?
Empty plates, empty closets.
So much emptiness to bear
in the fullness of time.
“ The word ‘Ma’ is also a term in Japanese culture that refers to an empty space or the perception of one. ”