Download ‘Strokestown’ by Julian Stannard as a PDF
Julian Stannard
Strokestown (Co. Roscommon)
Sunlight breaks the clouds
and the sheep are singing
Here Comes the Sun
and when I say singing I mean
bleating but one of the sheep
looks like George Harrison
and the difference between
a bleat and a song and
the difference between
a legend and a sheep
I’m not going to ruin the day
by splitting hairs.
I walk out of the Big House
with a tartan rug
and lay it down among
the choir of sheep and I lie
on the rug to gape at the sky.
The sheep are looking at me
in a most encouraging way.
The sheep are hoping for
a revelation, something
they can pass around themselves
so I turn to them and say
This is the nearest I’ve been
to America.
Julian Stannard’s most recent collection is The Parrots of Villa Gruber Discover Lapis Lazuli (Salmon, 2011). He won the Troubadour Prize in 2010 and is a Reader In English and Creative Writing at the University of Winchester (UK).