Midweek Moleskine: The Alchemist's Mask (Patreon)

This was directly inspired by a dream I had- it was like watching an old animatic or a slide show, illustrating this poem with old woodcut-looking drawings while a soft voice narrated in poetry form.

When I woke up, I could only barely recall what had basically happened, though my strongest memory was the very last stanza of this poem here, which I wrote down immediately after waking up, drawing the little mask next to it as well. The rest of it I came up with over the course of the week. I'm not much of a poet but I feel like I captured the spirit of the whole dream as best as I could. 

In case you can't read my handwriting, here's a transcript of the poem:

Deep within a secret lab
Within a secret place
An alchemist was working,
Wooden mask upon her face

A desperate man approached her,
Begging for a cure.
She turned and hissed out something
She hissed many times before:

"You never take your medicine!
You lie and steal and cheat!
You sleep too little, drink too much,
And have far too much to eat!"

She went back to her brewing
While he stood there gently weeping
Until he finally woke up-
How long had he been sleeping?

The sights and smells within that lab
Stood fresh inside his brain
But what the Alchemist had said
He scarcely could retain

But filling with a sudden zeal
He set upon a task.
He stumbled to the workbench...

...and carved a wooden mask.