Joe Brainard wrote a long piece called “I Remember”. Every paragraph (sometimes no more than a sentence) starts “I remember …” as in “I remember that little jerk you give just before you fall asleep. Like falling.”
I remember being scared the first time that “little jerk” happened. It’s only happened to me a few times but it sure gives meaning to the “falling” part of falling asleep. It really feels like falling and your legs jerk out to catch you and the jerking of the legs wakes you.
A section from “I Remember” appears in Another World: a second anthology of work from the St Mark’s poetry project, edited by Anne Waldman, the latest anthology to rise to the top of the pile.
Since I’m excerpting Brainard memories that could be mine there’s also this:
“I remember having a paper route.”
2 comments:
That little jerk happens to me often enough that I've come to find it comforting. There's a change in mind that follows it that I recognize as beginning to fall asleep.
It is a problem when that little jerk causes me to knee Sarah and wake her up but that doesn't happen often.
alternate title for post:
Little Jerks in Bed
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