Dragging myself out of bed at 4:30 a.m., flying for over twenty hours across the Pacific Ocean, and being stuck in an airport for six hours results in messy hair, extreme boredom, and the lovely phenomenon of circadian desynchrony, more commonly known as jet lag. I won’t get into the details of why we ended up stuck in San Francisco for so ridiculously long, but suffice it to say that it was not our fault this time.
Still, our fault or not, I was stuck, fighting an intense bout of circadian desynchrony. In a desperate attempt to not fall asleep at noon, I decided to write a poem about the syrupy cotton invading my brain. Considering the circumstances, I’m quite proud of how it turned out.
A throbbing, pulsing blur
Fogging the mind
Everything a distant whir.
~0oOo0~
Dazed sleepiness bobbing in the veins
Clouding the mind
Impossible to look sane.
~0oOo0~
The noon sun shining mockingly
Too cheerful
Not close to being sleepy.
~0oOo0~
Eyelids drooping heavily
Fluttering open
Not focused enough to see.
~0oOo0~
Suddenly they shut and a cloud blooms
Dimming the mind
Enclosing the body in sleep’s tomb.
…and yes, I did fall asleep after writing this, despite my efforts. One does not simply fight circadian desynchrony! (yes, I am completely obsessed with calling jet lag its official dorky scientific name. xD)
Anyways, that’s a little taste of the dark side to travelling overseas/across multiple time zones, but nothing that my cozy bed didn’t fix. Hopefully I’ll be able to share a more uplifting story from my few weeks in Vietnam sometime soon.
In the meantime…I have a date with my bed, so please excuse me.
The Voyaging Storyteller 
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