Sleepy observations

This is a story about something that happened last summer, at a time when I was running on a lot less sleep than usual:
It was the evening of a day I had spent running lots of errands, trying hard to not get lost on the way and to avoid bare-faced strangers who were looking for conversation. I was standing at an unfamiliar train station, blankly watching the strip of evening sky between an ugly building and the station roof change colors. I barely paid attention to the podcast I was listening to, partly because I didn’t have my coat and it was getting chilly, partly because I was thinking about whether I’d make my next appointment – with Berlin public transport being so unreliable, especially during the evening rush hour. While I was standing there, lost in thought, a train approached the platform. After a glance at the information board to confirm that it wasn’t the one I had to take, my gaze found the train windows that were passing by me at a decreasing speed until I could make out individual passengers. When I realized that they were all wearing masks, I was genuinely shocked. The thought that this train full of incognito criminals would soon open its doors and thus remove the barrier between us worried me. Only then did I remember that we were in a pandemic and that wearing a mask on public transport is mandated, which meant that all those apparent criminals were everyday heroes. As I continued to gaze at the windows that were now slowly gaining speed as they passed by me, I was shocked at how exhausted I must have been at that moment and decided to get some much-needed rest after that last appointment. I should definitely stop making fun of the duck’s numerous Christmas market and cookie daydreams after this embarrassing incident that, hopefully, didn’t show in the tiny bare section of my tired face because, yes, I had forgotten that I was wearing a mask myself. I would have been one of the criminals.

When the duck is sleeping: A haiku

Dreaming of cookies
Happily dancing in space
On a rainbow cloud.

I’ve drawn several pictures of the duck and cookies in the years that we’ve known each other, but there was never one that adequately depicted what the duck’s dreams are made of. There still isn’t. But this picture has come the closest so far. It had been years since I used my (too) cheap watercolors and watercolor paper, so I had forgotten how bad they are. On top of that, I forgot everything that I had resolved to pay attention to for a less blotchy result. To diminish the chances of completely ruining this picture, I decided to use watercolor pencils for the small details. It’s far from what I imagined, but I don’t mind it (enough to redo it) – that’s the mindset you need for successful laziness! The haiku is descriptive enough, anyway.
I was inspired by Ricky Baker from the film Hunt for the Wilderpeople that I wrote about two weeks ago. So far, whenever the duck and I were in haiku composition mode, we tried to adhere to the form as much as we (as fauxets) were able to in English. Ricky’s haiku, however, merely follow the 5-7-5 pattern and, instead of describing seasons or sensations, they are about his current situation or feelings. We liked that. So we did that, too.