“Remember” by Jennifer Marie Brissett

with each recall; saturated

colors wash and run

forming inky puddles at the bottom of

my mind could once tell you correctly,

could tell you the exact—

seconds that have been stored;

have been forgotten?

like wisps of smoke

without volume or shape.

her face,

her skin, her scent, her laugh

carried by electrical impulses

through my brain

to land in the softest of places

and remain

dormant and glowing

caught in grey matter like amber

our yeses and noes and maybes

etched into logic patterns

layered in silicon infused with boron

drip wishes and regrets

in saline solutions across our cheeks

what we shared

copied in an image of a copy

of a copy of a copy

of a copy

fades …

∞

Once in her life, and a long time ago, Jennifer Marie Brissett owned and operated a Brooklyn indie bookstore called Indigo Café & Books. Now she is an author and has written the novels ELYSIUM (Aqueduct Press, 2014), DESTROYER OF LIGHT (coming from Tor in 2020!), and is currently working on ERINYES, the third and final novel of the series. Her work has been the finalist for a number of awards and won the Philip K. Dick Special Citation. Her short stories can be found in FIYAH Magazine, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Lightspeed Magazine, Motherboard Vice (Terraform), Uncanny Magazine, The Future Fire, the anthology APB: Artists against Police Brutality and other publications.

She currently is a professor in the online MFA program in Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University, and she lives in NYC. Find her online at www.jennbrissett.com