The Two-Headed Calf

By Laura Gilpin

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.

Why I Like This Poem

By Me

This poem says that being strange does not disqualify you from happiness. Even the most short-lived, abnormal life is worth something, because even that life--and perhaps even that life in particular--contains joy.