{"id":12929,"date":"2025-07-04T13:42:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T12:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929"},"modified":"2025-12-20T13:15:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:15:53","slug":"my-dog-ate-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929","title":{"rendered":"My Dog Ate the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/large_20180719_120611-e1751631854721.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"508\" \/><br \/><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">Image: \u00a9 Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And tumbled through the door when I<br \/>let him in. His rust coat moved like a<br \/>windy sea. I turned on the porch light: it<br \/>didn\u2019t make any difference. \u201cYou\u2019re dead,\u201d<br \/>I said to him; he cocked his head to the<br \/>leash on a chair. Of course, he would<br \/>want to go walking<em> now<\/em>, wouldn\u2019t he?<br \/>I got a jacket and wrapped up,<br \/>it was getting cold. My flashlight<br \/>striped out on to a darkness never seen.<br \/>I hooked the leash to his collar. He twisted<br \/>and barked, his mouth made dazzling<br \/>winks of sunlight. He was such a clever<br \/>little dog: I couldn\u2019t figure out how he did it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>____<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Cormac Culkeen<\/strong> lives in Galway and completed an MA in Writing at the University of Galway in 2023. His poetry has been published in Skylight 47, Causeway, Apricot Press, Bindweed, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Ropes Literary Journal, Orphic Review, the Honest Ulsterman, the Galway Review, Southlight and Power Cut magazine. His debut poetry collection, The Boy with the Radio, was published in 2022. He is one of the founding editors of Ragaire literary magazine, a Galway based literary journal dedicated to publishing international writers and writers based in the West of Ireland.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: \u00a9 Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries And tumbled through the door when Ilet him in. His rust coat moved like awindy sea. I turned on the porch light: itdidn\u2019t make any difference. \u201cYou\u2019re dead,\u201dI said to him; he cocked his head to theleash on a chair. Of course, he wouldwant to go walking now, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[432,433],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>My Dog Ate the Sun - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Dog Ate the Sun - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Image: \u00a9 Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries And tumbled through the door when Ilet him in. 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Of course, he wouldwant to go walking now, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-04T12:42:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-20T12:15:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/large_20180719_120611-e1751631854721.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cormac Culkeen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cormac Culkeen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929\",\"name\":\"My Dog Ate the Sun - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-04T12:42:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-20T12:15:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/abfa566f7cb8069a903a1a8e300f1f49\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Dog Ate the Sun\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/abfa566f7cb8069a903a1a8e300f1f49\",\"name\":\"Cormac Culkeen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"Cormac Culkeen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=397\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Dog Ate the Sun - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12929","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Dog Ate the Sun - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Image: \u00a9 Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries And tumbled through the door when Ilet him in. 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