"Reflections" A Collection of Writing by students in Bray and Wicklow Collection 1 | Page 18

Hope
It’s a cold January afternoon the sun is high in the sky and the clouds
look like beds of cotton wool. The fields are covered in a light blanket
of snow. The sheep wait patiently as they see their farmer coming in
his jeep. Little do they know of this man’s life; little do they care, as
to them his arrival means food.
On this cold January day, the man who brings the food is upset. He
has tears running down his face for he has just lost his wife. This man,
stricken with grief, loads the meal onto his shoulder from his jeep like
a bag of coal. He marches up to the gate and pours the meal into the
trough. The man manages a smile as he greets the approaching sheep
and talks to them as if they are friends. The farmer climbs over the
gate into the field and begins to pet the sheep as if it was of some
comfort to him. He sludges through the mud like a soldier at war.