It's quite unlike "It" or "That" reminding me of things.
Also more difficult to express to you who may also
have been reminded by "It" or "That" but never by "I"
in the way that I am reminded by "I".
Once I reminded myself of an aged sea turtle.
For instance, the way I am standing in the kitchen
suddenly reminds me of a Greek woman I met in
Paris, plus Greek people, and cats, and the French
Canadian old man who showed me to a campsite on
the coast on Maine with a flashlight in the dark
demonstrating how cats whine and scream at night,
and the cat that startled me last night at reading,
screaming so terribly that I was afraid it was being
killed.
I was told later that the neighbor underneath had
asked for a box to put the cat in and put it on the
steps under my room-window.
I found this "I" reminding almost as unbelievable
as "It" or "That" reminding oneself of "I".
How often?
Not uncommon for "It" or "That" to remind oneself
of "It" or "That", but how often is it that you think
to yourself, "He/She/It/That reminds me of myself!"
How often does someone say to you, tell you,
"I think we're alike." or "Don't you think we're a lot alike?"
Maybe it has happened often?
Has it happened often that you'd been thinking
the same thing for some time?
What happened when the thought had never
entered your head? I bet that did amaze you.
What happened when, for some time, you'd
had the opposite thought?
That happened to me: a full-fledged question.
Like a grey bird's wing with its infinite permutations
of grey underfolding. Hard to answer such a question.
I remember both times. In the past year
she has asked me twice
"We're alike, don't you think?"
a little differently.
I don't think I remember myself then -
what I said, what I did. I ask myself
whether I just stared at her,
or whether my mother felt loved.
-Ann
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