Full fathom five

The first time I visited la préfecture in Albi, I sat in the waiting area reading Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Tomorrow when I return the documents for a further ten-year renewal of my residency permit, I’ll have Hannah Arendt’s Responsibility and Judgment as possible reading material. Whether I’ll read or not, I have no idea.

Today, I have Ariel’s song in my mind, at least, the most well-known part of it:

Full fathom five thy father lies

of his bones are corral made

those are pearls that were his eyes

nothing of him that doth fade

but doth suffer a sea-change

into something rich and strange.

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

Ding-dong.

Hark! now I hear them – Ding-dong, bell. 

Other Shakespearean creations crowd about me this morning. Notably, the fool in Twelth Night, singing

when that I was and a little tiny boy

with hey, ho, the wind and the rain

a foolish thing was but a toy

for the rain it raineth every day…

a great while ago the world begun

with hey, ho, the wind and the rain

but that’s all one, our play is done

and we’ll strive to please you every day.

A lot happens in ten years.I have no idea what comes next, in my own life or in anyone else’s.

A unicycle. A unicycle on a wire, with another unicycle serving as guitar. I’ll stay with that image for now – with or without the rose clenched between my teeth. A great while ago the world began – and will continue, one way or another.