I haven't enough sleep, he said.
As soon as they woke him up, which itself took a year, it's the first thing he uttered.
But lord, you have been sleeping for a hundred years.
He cast his eyes about and then said, and you are all still suffering.
The kingdom withers without you, lord.
Then it is no kingdom at all, he said. And I do not wish to see it. Put me to sleep.
And they did. And it's only then they began to understand they needed no king at all.
Paddy Dobson
13th September 2022