The Yarn of Shaun the Sheep
Two Tasmanian farmers have found what they hope to prove is the world’s woolliest sheep. They believe it has been wandering wild for six years and never been shorn.
Peter and Netty Hazell discovered the animal, nicknamed Shaun, wandering on their farm and decided to take him in.
You ought to hear the yarn the folks are spinning
now the news is out both far and wide
about the Tassie wonder from down-under –
our Shaun the Sheep, the nation’s woolly pride.
Now Shaun was just a lamb six years ago
when fire came blazing near his eastern farm
and Shaun thought “Yikes! It’s time to do a runner.
If I stay put I’m sure to come to harm.”
So off he went to wander through the mountains
and live a lonesome life beneath the trees.
He didn’t fancy staying to be roasted.
He thought the better option was to freeze.
But no, he didn’t freeze. His woolly fleece
grew thicker by the day as he went west
and Shaun the Sheep became a walking doona
(a first-rate one – merino at its best).
and as the days and months and years went by
that fleece became so big it swallowed Shaun.
But then it chanced that Pete and Netty Hazell
were driving in their ute one autumn morn
and saw that fleece – or was it someone’s doona? –
abandoned in a hedge beyond the road.
They went to have a look. The doona bleated.
“Hey Pete! There’s something living in this load!”
Then sure enough they saw that doona move.
And as these folks were kind and tender-hearted
they took the creature home to sort it out,
and since that day the three have not been parted.
For Shaun the Sheep has learnt to live in style
and changed his name to Shaun the Superstar,
for Shaun was shorn and now he is a legend.
That fleece of his is famous near and far.
The Aussie owners say his wool is destined
to make at least three jumpers – superfine.
But if you check what’s told around the campfires
you’ll find an even better story-line.
It seems that in that famous Aussie fleece
there lurks a kind of magic super-power
and like a certain Aussie magic pudding
it keeps on growing bigger by the hour.
The latest count is now at thirty-five
new woolly garments! Now do you suppose
that yarn could make (if someone keeps on spinning)
the right stuff for an emperor’s new clothes?
© Kate O’neil
Australian Children’s Poetry 