defining memory
by C. E. Laine

defining memory
Some memories
are the sticky, wet
red of cancer, swelling
to suffocate everything else;

couched in words that matter,

tweaked into a "poem" that
slides into fits of discontented,
blue, moody eloquence.

Other memories
are brightly colored nylon,
filled with helium, rising
high and out of reach.

Or spread eagle, freefall dives
into ethereal patches of mist,
pinched into inadequate words;

enslaved by the comma
and the semi-colon.

First appeared in The 2River View, 5.2 (Winter 2000)

C. E. Laine's work has appeared in many publications, including Poems Niederngasse, New World Poetry, Free Zone Quarterly, Poetry Super Highway, Countless Horizons, The White Shoe Irregular, Bay Review Liberal Arts Journal, Friction Magazine, 2River View, Kota Press, Absinthe, Stirring (writing as Kit Sullivan), The White Shoe Irregular, Clean Sheets, Erosha, Beauty for Ashes, Ludlow Press, Melic Review, The Adirondack Review and Pierian Springs. She has written two books of poetry: "allegory" (ISBN: 0-595-22462-8) and "The Weight of Dust" (ISBN: 0-595-26943-5). They are available at celaine.com . She is a writer and a student pilot. She divides her time between writing and flying old airplanes. She avoids the mundane whenever possible, with the exception of making lists. She is a student pilot, a realtor, and a web designer when she isn't writing. In the past, she's been magician's assistant, a baker, an extra in a few movies, a licensed artist in New Orleans' French Quarter, and a soldier in this girl's U. S. Army. She lives in a creaking old Virginia home, conveniently ruled by seven cats. She enjoys making lists on sticky notes when she isn't writing poems.