The Two-Headed Calf

via Scrum­bling.

The Two-Head­ed Calf

Tomor­row when the farm boys find this
freak of nature they will wrap his body
in news­pa­per and car­ry him to the muse­um.
But tonight he is alive and in the north
field with his moth­er. It is a per­fect
sum­mer evening: the moon ris­ing over
the orchard, the wind in the grass. And
as he stares into the sky, there are
twice as many stars as usu­al.

-Lau­ra Gilpin

One thought on “The Two-Headed Calf”

  1. I love this poem. The visu­al of the two-head­ed calf star­ing at the sky and see­ing twice as many stars (because it has two sets of eyes)is both awe­some and sad. Such a short life and yet such a bless­ing to be able to see twice the beau­ty of the night sky!

    Thanks for post­ing this, I sud­den­ly remem­bered it from one of my uni­ver­si­ty class­es and just had to go and search for it online.

Comments are closed.