Two-Headed Calf Poem by Laura Gilpin

Submission 4,349

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Overview

The Two-Headed Calf is a poem by Laura Gilpin about a two-headed calf that dies the morning after its birth. The poem was published as a part of Gilpin's 1977 award-winning poetry collection The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe. Online, the poem became the subject of webcomics, fan art and memes starting around 2019 for its emotional impact, also becoming a prevalent tattoo.

Background

On December 1st, 1976, Laura Gilpin's poetry collection The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe was published, winning the 1976 Walt Whitman Award.^[1] The collection includes a short poem titled "The Two-Headed Calf" about a calf born with two heads that dies as a result, as most two-headed animals die shortly after their birth (excerpt show below).^[2]^[3]

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.

Online Presence

"The Two-Headed Calf" poem became increasingly popularized online starting in 2019. That year, on March 14th, 2019, webcomic artist @adamtots posted a comic to Instagram^[4] depicting the poem, garnering over 414,000 likes in four years (shown below). It was reposted to Reddit's /r/wholesomememes that day, garnering over 17,800 upvotes in the same span of time.

On September 1st, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @itslittletunny posted an original artistic visualization of the poem, garnering over 29,000 likes in two years (shown below, left). The poem also became a prominent reference in tattoos. For example, on November 17th, a Redditor shared a tattoo based on the poem to /r/tattoos,^[10] garnering over 7,200 upvotes in two years (shown below, right).

On November 17th, TikToker^[6] @juliaroblin posted a video sharing artwork visualizing the poem, garnering over 1.9 million views in two years (shown below, left). On March 28th, 2022, TikToker^[7] @bone_merrow posted an animation referencing the poem along with a reading of it, garnering over 200,000 views in a year (shown below, right). On January 25th, 2023, the Interesting Literature^[8] blog then published an analysis of the poem.

On March 1st, 2023, Twitter^[9] user @nicejewishbutch posted, "Gay people love to get a tattoo of a two headed calf staring into the sky seeing twice as many stars as usual," garnering over 2,700 likes in a month (shown below).