Every few months I see this poem:
https://twitter.com/nktgill/status/1534096441639059456 make the rounds on Reddit or Twitter and everyone seems to love it. There are countless people who get tattoos and literally, every fucking comment is people saying shit like "oh thanks for making me cry today". I understand it makes me a massive party pooper but I think the poem fails at its message.
A two-headed animal is two living beings fused into one body. Look at any "two-headed" person and they are always correctly identified as conjoined twins because they are two people. Like we would never refer to Abby and Brittany hansel as one person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_and_Brittany_Hensel A two-headed calf would be no different. Cows are mammals with conscious experiences like humans but throughout the entire poem, the calf(s) are referred to as a singular entity.
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 overthe orchard, the wind in the grass. Andas *he* stares into the sky, there aretwice as many stars as usual.
I feel like this mistake actually takes away from the message. The poem's fundamental point seems to be that the calf(s) is a living feeling creature that has an experience and existence, and this will be disrespected by the farm boys only it see it for its unusual features. The problem is by ignoring the fact that the two-headed calf is two living creatures, the poem is ironically 'disrespecting' the hypothetical calf(s) in a similar way. A good example would be the final line "as *he* stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual" This line only really works when the calves are referred to as one entity because the line "as *they* stare into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual" doesn't have the same twisting impact at the end with the calves already being referred to as they. The poem is unintentionally disrespecting these hypothetical creatures' existence for the audience's emotional state.
Idk maybe if the poem was called the two-faced calf it would work but that sounds kinda like the calf is either a batman villain or it's gonna stab someone.
Honestly, though I don't blame Laura Gilpen. She wrote the poem in 1977 so I think she honestly meant the massage and she just didn't know much about basic neuroscience. I guess I'm just surprised that so many people don't seem to know any better nowadays.