Early Tonight: A Misguided Promise

A haiku about sleep

Now this is something I’m sure most of you can relate to.

終日やあくびばかりで早く寝る shūjitsu ya akubi bakari de hayaku neru

yawning all day i’ll go to bed early tonight — Tenjōka

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I think we all know that early tonight never happened.

We have all been there. Stayed up too late, feel incredibly tired in the morning, and promised ourselves that we will make up for it by going to bed early. But then evening comes and, either with a renewed burst of energy or with the feeling of obligation to do some work (or both), we watch as early comes and goes, as bedtime comes and goes, and once again we find ourselves up too late. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow.

I wrote this on just such a day. I had stayed up till 1am doing work and had then woken at 5am as usual to prepare for the day. There’s sometimes a strange kind of energy that comes from not getting enough sleep and that can fuel us better than any coffee. Unfortunately, that energy only lasted me until the kids were out the door. After that, I couldn’t stop yawning and couldn’t really focus on anything very well. Around noon I took a caffeine pill to help give me a lift and I wrote the above haiku.

Thanks for reading — you’re a wonderful human being.

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Haiku by me. Yes, I am Tenjōka (天上火). Or I’m playing with using the penname for my haiku, anyway. Read the full story behind that name → here.

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