Wake Up

Write about a private moment you’ve experienced in a distant place. Perhaps a solitary walk along a beach or an elegant dinner at a restaurant far from home. Your goal, first, is to transport yourself back to this moment, then put the reader there. Tell us what you see, what you smell and hear, what you feel.

I will answer this post with a poem I wrote when I was in seventh grade. It narrates a dream I once had. Before Inception came out.

I wake up
I’m not in my bed
My room smells different
My hands look different
I’m a different person...

I wake up
My head hurts
My back aches
My clothes smell
The sidewalk is cold
A man gives me change...

I wake up
I walk outside
The air smells of fish
The sand cradles my bare feet
The sun is warm on my face
And the ocean purrs on the horizon...

I wake up again
The walls are white
There is a tube in my nose
A woman asks if I can hear her
One blink for yes
Two blinks for no
She says she's sorry...

I wake up
I cry
My bed rocks slowly
A strange woman comes and holds me
I cry louder...

I wake up
The air is cold
The walls are dirty
My cot smells of puke and sweat
The guard walks by my cell...

I wake up again
My head is on the woman next to me
I hear a man ask for more peanuts
I look out the window and see clouds
The pilot says we are almost home...

And then I wake up
I know this warmth
I know these hands
And I know this place
I feel familiar
I feel fine
I feel normal
And then I wake up…