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Love in the Time of Electrons by Ellaraine Lockie:
A Review by David Fraser
Love in the Time of Electrons, a new short 28 page chapbook, by Ellaraine Lockie is a collection
of finely crafted poems that are at times whimsical and hilarious but also serious and sad. These are
love poems delivered at a distance. They allude to steamy electronic relationships, vacation affairs,
and meetings in cyberspace and in coffee houses. As funny as Ellaraine is in these narratives, we find haunting
juxtapositions in lines such as:
"So she can buy Revlon's Raisin Rage nail polish
Turn the numbness into a red-purple blur."
or
"Reasons to keep her from filling
her pockets with rocks."
from "She Reads Virginia Wolfe"
There is a strong sense of loss and at times muted anger. In "Connecting the Dots" she says
"I'm alone with a stranger
from whom I've taken candy."
or
"Perhaps soon I'll know him well enough
to accept a pastry from him" (at an encounter at Starbucks)
In many cases it is what is not said in these poems that make them powerful. A Boston-by-the-sea T-shirt,
men's medium arrives with all the sweat and pheromones of a torrid love affair and the reader is quite happy
to fill in the blanks.
The alliteration and assonance of "I'll straddle the saddle/of your stripped hip bones" delightfully rolls
off the tongue. One poem ends with three great hilarious but sad graphic lines.
"And something like marriage carries me to the kitchen
unsteady in stilettos, black bustier and tight highs
to lean on some strong coffee."
Here is a visual juxtaposition of the sensually exotic with the mundane. Love in the Time of Electrons
is an enjoyable read that will make you laugh, but leave you with a sense of foreboding.
Ellaraine Lockie writes poetry, essays and children’s stories. She has received poetry residencies
at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA, her eleventh Pushcart Prize nomination, the 2008 Writecorner Press Poetry Prize, the 2008 Skysaje
Poetry Prize, the 2007 Elizabeth R. Curry Prize and finalist status for the 2007 Joy Harjo Poetry Award and the Creekwalker Poetry Prize.
Recently released publications are Mod Gods and Luggage Straps, a poetry/art broadside from BrickBat Revue and her fifth chapbook,
Blue Ribbons at the County Fair, a collection of first-place contest winning poems from PWJ Publishing.
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