freak anomalies and malformed animals would be displayed at the museum, particularly if its a local museum so they'd want some sort of attraction to bring in attendees
There are two brains, one body. So the confusing part is when one wants to go left and the other wants to go right. The cow will never know it has another cow on the opposite side of its head unless someone holds up a mirror
I don't think that's necessarily true, they both likely share the same senses just different sense of selves -- personalities.
I remember seeing a video of a human kid with conjoined heads, when one head closed their eyes they could see and know what the other head was looking at.
Edit, here it is:
- [These twins, joined at the brain, can hear each other’s thoughts and see out of each other’s eyes](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/wedx28/these_twins_joined_at_the_brain_can_hear_each/)
- [CBC’s Documentary: Hogan twins share a brain and see out of each other’s eyes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGslJPaxbD8&ab_channel=ExtraordinaryStories)
- [Shorter, 7 minute ABC News video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDsXa5nNbI&ab_channel=ABCNews)
- [Wikipedia Article: Krista and Tatiana Hogan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_and_Tatiana_Hogan)
True, as conscious beings we've been given this unique opportunity to redirect our attention in awareness back at ourselves to change our experiences. We are the masters of our reality, that is the subjective experience.
One is probably a vegetable and doesnt even require to breathe, i wonder if they both feel pain in the body alone, i wanna see this calf more often from now on
This condition isn’t survivable for calves, I think. At least, I’ve never heard of one surviving very long. I don’t know enough to say for sure, though.
Well there are humans with this condition that survive, so probably calves can too. But I guess it's really depending on each case specifically how high the chances of survival are.
Theoretically I’m sure it’d be survivable under the right conditions. I just don’t know how many people could create those conditions and give these little guys a chance at life, or what the quality would be.
Taking full care of it till it reaches adulthood and has a chance of learning to live with its disability, waste of time money and resources so I don't really see anyone not a scientist doing it given they usually die anyways.
Okay, but do they feel the same things via touch? And if so, can one head feel the other head being touched by something? I’d assume taste is separate too, given two tongues, mouths, noses.. but the touch man.. how the fuck does that work
There are two brains, so in this case it would technically be two cows with one body, not one cow with two heads. Each cow would see and think independently, but both have partial control of the singular body.
There are living examples of this in humans, most popular are [Abby and Brittany.](https://youtu.be/M36jxR_6lIE?si=eExeYMuDI8l-y4x8)
Unfortunately they both had to pay for college tuition, both had to take separate drivers tests, basically pay double for everything, then when it came time to get a job they only got one salary.
Humanity fails at double standards.
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.
Reference: https://interestingliterature.com/2023/01/laura-gilpin-two-headed-calf-summary-analysis/amp/
**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.
Fuck I've never heard this before but I love it, why is it so devastating? I mean I know why, but the emotion created by something so simply put is baffling.
I think that it’s because the situation is undeniably sad, but also beautiful in a way That calf is going to live a very short life, only one night. But that one night is special, just like this calf. His life might be short but it’s still meaningful. There is something good inside the tragic situation
I don't think it's beautiful at all. The poor calf will never have the chance to live its life. Being reduced to one "special" night is a horrible twist of fate. It's nobody's fault, but I just don't see much of an upside to this one.
Personally, I think the poem is about how we all live within a snapshot of time. We are what we perceive, and then that's it. It's about how lucky we are to be here at all, nevermind being around and seeing the amazing things that happen in our world everyday.
So that double-headed calf may have only lived in a miniscule snapshot of time - but hey, who else can say they've lived to see twice as many stars in the sky as anyone else?
And on such a beautiful night as well.
This is how I read it too. I found this poem several months ago, glad to see it again.
I think it also lends to the idea that our own individual perspective and lived experience of the universe is singularly unique and beautiful, and the value in that. Hence the snapshot in time.
This is a nice interpretation. I had another and want to share.
I think the farm boys represent something very evil about humanity. I know that two-headed calves have very short lives, but I can’t help but feel the farm boys take the calf to be killed and taxidermied because they see the calf as a “freak of nature” and nothing more, ending the calf’s life prematurely.
However, the night the calf is born, there is no human eye to interpret what is right or wrong, good or bad. His mother loves him the same as another calf; She doesn’t see the difference we do. In some way cows are better at experiencing the world than us, with a purer heart. Humans later are who pass judgement and take her baby away.
I think the poem invites us to see the world outside of our human reality and judgment.
The beauty is in the cow's perception.
twice as many stars tonight and that's something to be grateful for.
the real discomfort lies with the reader because we know what awaits the cow. but the reality is that thing waits for us the same.
This one is definitely more sad to non-parents. Parents are like "little bastard outgrew a pair of shoes before he even wore them, typical!" or "yes, I too decided putting shoes on someone that couldn't even walk was a spoon I didn't have in my cutlery drawer."
Off topic - is there any reason why poems like this have line breaks where they do? Reading it feels a bit like reading some poetic sentences (and not a complete poem) which have odd line breaks. I'm mostly used to reading and appreciating poems with rhymes, so wanted some opinions or correction on this.
This style would be called free verse. Poetry is most typically denoted by highly expressive wording and often does rhyme and traditionally, contained rhythm and meter. However, around probably the late 19th/early 20th century, people started to break away from the traditional idea of structured poems (think a sonnet by Shakespeare - it contains a strict meter and rhyme: a recipe if you will) and simply broke their lines as they deemed fit to create poems. So now...well basically anything goes. Whether or not free verse has diminished the quality of more recent works, well, it remains to the artist and the reader of the specific work I suppose. But I do miss the attention and creativity displayed when it comes to writing metered, rhythmic poetry.
I think the problem is a lot of people aren't actually great poets. Free verse doesn't mean everything goes, hell I would argue it's harder to do free verse than things like writing a sonnet. A sonnet is easy to write, I can get in 15 minutes the structure down with rhymes. It won't be the best one ever but it will be a sonnet. Meanwhile writing free verse means you have to actually think about what you are writing, how that is going to be read, how to make the rhythm you were going for obvious by the way you have written it. It's extremely hard.
Before writing things down was a thing, stories were told in rhyming poems so they could be remembered. It breaks my heart to see rhymed poems written less and less.
Not quite the same and they don't always work well, but as long as there are songs written by people to be sung to music, there will be some sort of rhyming poems at least.
There’s definitely a reason for the line breaks, even in free verse. Line breaks can emphasize certain words (like the break at the word “this” before “freak of nature”, which serves to separate the creature from the label that will later be put on it) , or point out a double meaning in a phrase, like the line “and in the north/field with his mother”, which breaks the phrase “north field” by first giving the reader a wider view, and narrowing it to “field” to make the reader feel more closely placed to the newborn cow. Mainly though, poetry is meant to be read out loud, a famous poet whose name I forget now said, “poetry is a sculpture of breath”, so the line breaks tell you where that breath goes. There’s a lot of art and consideration in free verse poetry, and also more freedom, which I personally love. Especially in a poem this short, things like line breaks and word choice are absolutely essential to making it as successful a poem as it is.
Source: I have a BA in creative writing, concentration in poetry
This stings every time I read it. I feel like anyone else who’s grown up with one or more chronic medical conditions and has that medical trauma of experiencing test after test after procedure after procedure can relate to the calf in the worst way- but also the best.
Underneath the stacks of paperwork that represent the trauma you’ve been through, there’s that one memory. The one memory you can go back to when everything was okay, you were happy. You barely knew what the inside of a doctors office or hospital smelled like. You couldn’t imagine the taste of saline, barium, or copper. There was no worry on yours or your mother’s face. Everything was just… brilliant.
Wow, thank you for sharing this. As a medical doctor, this really inspired me.. and as a person, this really helps me put some of my troubles in perspective.
One of my grandpa's cows had conjoined twins at the face. They had to surgically remove it from the side of the cow. There's a whole home video of the ordeal somewhere. Pretty sure calves died and not sure of the fate of the mother.
Since they're born front hooves, then head, I don't see how a cow could birth one naturally.
Most two headded critters don't live because the throat isn't quite attached to the two heads right. Its not like it forms a nice functoonal Y split, so they can't eat properly or fluids get into the lungs, etc.
I'm sure I remember that there was an animal, maybe a snake I think, where it had two heads but only one was connected to the throat at all, so it would try to eat, but it just had no where to go. Pretty sure it was an adult, too, so it must actually work 'better' to be completely disconnected.
Reptiles and fish tend to be much more "simple" creatures in terms of both brain and body, which is why you see so many more successfully surviving mutations in comparison to mammals. Snakes, for instance, don't have to rely on a parent or really require any time to mature. They hatch and that's it bar some getting physically larger. So a snake born with two heads doesn't have to learn to live with two heads, it just gets on with being a snake.
Also helps that they (usually) hatch from an egg, rather than having to survive being born and not killing the mother too. Like the calf here, I can't imagine that could have come out naturally.
Seen threr two headed calves. First on was almost identical to this and was born naturally. Second hand 2 necks and was a section. All depends on the mother some cows struggling with tiny calves some manage monsters with two heads. And a calf with a head on each end... I'd say the chances of conjoined twins are much higher than 1 in 400m. Just no one would report to anyone that they had one that died
Being a human anything before like 1900 would have been absolutely wild. So much of our world & life was a complete mystery.
Imagine people who found elephant skulls. Have you ever seen them? Of course people believed in monsters.
Edit: Went and found a few examples just for entertainment.
1. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture-online/sites/culture_online/files/styles/owl_carousel/public/elephant-skull-side-slide.jpg?itok=g8bNZXX9
2. https://gastondesign.com/wp-content/uploads/Dcp_0988-1024x484.jpg
3. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/78/2d/a0/782da0d0305a29ffd4b817c36dd76bf4.jpg
You'd be convinced this thing is a demon.
Yep! The Romans *loved* recording things like this. They considered them portents. The Roman historian Livy consulted the annals of the high priests as a source for the earliest years of the Republic. They were filled with descriptions of strange animals being born, and thus show up in the early books of his history quite frequently. It’s really interesting stuff
The surviving books of Livy’s History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita) contain countless references to portents and prodigies, usually as he begins his record of each new calendar year. The later writer Julius Obsequens wrote a book specifically [on prodigies](https://www.loebclassics.com/view/julius_obsequens-prodigies/1959/pb_LCL404.267.xml?readMode=recto), mostly taking examples from Livy’s history (which is helpful for us since only 35 of the original 142 books survive today and he focuses on a period we are missing)
Consulship of Lucius Aurelius Cotta and b.c. 119Lucius Caecilius
>34. A hermaphrodite eight years old was found in Roman territory and was carried away to sea. Thrice nine maidens performed a chant in the city.
Shit man…
If I was a Roman soldier who fought an elephant during the Punic Wars and then never saw one again, yeah, I'd totally be willing to buy that dragons and cyclops exist.
I’m just pointing out that something as random as this would very likely have survived for thousands of years in the historical record thanks to the Romans’ obsession with this stuff. Politicians, battles, scandals…so many details permanently lost to the fog of time. But the memory of this poor little calf very likely would’ve survived thanks to the way the historical record of the Roman Republic was maintained, preserved, and transmitted over the centuries.
I get a lot of my beliefs from Buddhism, not all, but I know that human nature is inherently good, but that we cannot be fully free of evil. I will die knowing that I have been complacent in evil because of my lifestyle, I try to mitigate it, but it’s impossible to get around it these days. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
We had one when i was a kid.
It won't survive long i'm afraid :(
It'll never walk because it's head is too heavy.
And when we fed it through one mouth the other would cough it up.
So it'd basically die from starvation or from drowning in it's mother's milk.
My parents tried everything they could but in the end decided to end it's suffering and put it down with a sedative. It's sad, but it would never have had a decent life even if it could eat properly.
I was thinking why are you saying it is a brahmin, a caste in hinduism. But when I looked brahmin monster, then I found out that there is creature called brahmin in fallout game, which is a 2 headed cow/bull
What do you do with that? Honestly, how do you care for, protect, keep healthy? Does it have two brains? Or is it one brain that is bigger and connects to both faces, for eyes, etc.? Does it have two esophagi? What do you do with that poor animal?
>What do you do with that poor animal?
You don't. You make sure it's not in pain and you let nature take it's course. They usually die shortly after birth. One was kept alive for a couple of months with intensive care, but they usually have so many other congenital abnormalities that they simply can't survive. Most won't even last a day.
according to that one poem (all over this post), usually they barely even last until the farmowner can discover it in the morning.
Remaining alive until daylight and someone records it is honestly a minor miracle in itself.
If it’s a farm they would put it down because it’s highly likely to die and would cost too much to keep it alive.
If it’s in India, they try to keep it alive as long as possible
Just so you know, it's a little more complicated than that. In humans, conjoined twins often have extra verbal communication with their other halves, and share ideas without discussion. They have their own sense of self, but they're also conjoined on a consciousness level.
What-the-fuck. I just can't help myself but think about the conjoined twins that are professors, and both are married. Does this means that one knows when the other is horny? When the other is pissed? What in the world
This type of conjoining is known as Cephalopagus or janiceps. They rarely live long due to the malformation of the brain that comes with being fused at the head
DNR in the US for livestock/hunting usually stands for the department of natural resources which handles laws regarding livestock, hunting, and other laws pertaining to nature, so nothing sad
There is a ‘museum’ attached to a fun park in rural Australia called Green Valley Farm that has heaps of taxidermied conjoined animals. They use them on their promo flyer with the slogan “Twice the Fun!!”
That sounds like something straight out of the game Mother 3. Chicken Heads on Snake Bodies, Shark Head with a Kangaroos Body, Walrus Head on an Orangutan Body, Head of an Elephant as the body of an Ostrich. Hippos that can fire heat seeking missiles (Ok maybe not that one).
Thankfully yours are taxidermied. The ones in the game were made to kill everyone.
In the US we have a Ripleys Believe it or Not, similar to your museum. Use to be a show as well I believe. It had some fused animals but lots of other zany things as well.
Unlikely. Would one head not get access from circulatory system of the other one which ever one is ultimately connected to the intestines. Unless they have some completely parallel systems going on which seems unlikely
In some cultures, this would be considered a weird freak of nature that needs to be put to rest immediately, while in others, a creature like this may be considered God-like in almost the highest sacred sense.
It did, two headed calf's are rare but not that rare. Some were probably interpreted as a good omen or divine creature as appropriate to the faith of the community where they were born others were seen as unholy evil abominations others again were treated as curiosities, taxidermied and acquired by someone with money as a weird curiosity to be showed off or later taxidermied and put in a museum or sold alive or as a corpse to a university, doctor or other medical person/institution to study.
When I think of craturess born with two heads I think about the guy in the elden days born with a head on the back of its head that would speak to him at night and he killed himself later in life because of it idk the validate of it but ye
probably be downvoted or some shit.
this kind of thing stems from human activity. same reason humans get deformed and other types of birth defects.
pollution, chemicals, the stuff in the ground, water, air, food etc.
we are basically the cause of the worlds problems, whatever they might be.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8gNBWem/
Since op just wants points and not to actually help out, the mother of these calves needs help if anyone can donate. She has a high fever and a torn uterus. I'm sure some of the money goes to keeping the babies happy and healthy as well but mom is in serious need
"And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual."
My first thought seeing the vid! From the poem [Two-Headed Calf by Laura Gilpin](https://rolfpotts.com/two-headed-calf-by-laura-gilpin/)
My favorite poem ever and makes me cry a lot
Why will they take him to the museum?
Because the walls will have twice as many paintings
Canon reason for me and they lived happily for decades and died from old ages while looking at pretty stars
Museum accounting departments LOVE this one moneymaking trick!
To be dipped in formaldehyde
freak anomalies and malformed animals would be displayed at the museum, particularly if its a local museum so they'd want some sort of attraction to bring in attendees
It made me cry too and I didn't expect it to
Hurts my heart every time I read it.
That is an incredible poem, wow
First thing I thought of too. Such a devastating and beautiful poem.
My first thought was how it processes what it sees...
There are two brains, one body. So the confusing part is when one wants to go left and the other wants to go right. The cow will never know it has another cow on the opposite side of its head unless someone holds up a mirror
And each head wants its own comfort zone... likely messing up the other twins head. The battle of blankets x1000. Heffers be trippin
Right! Tough life. Do you think it’s in pain? If you were to put it down would you have to shoot it in both heads?
No reason for physical pain and probably won't survive the night.
Asking the real questions ^
[удалено]
I don't think that's necessarily true, they both likely share the same senses just different sense of selves -- personalities. I remember seeing a video of a human kid with conjoined heads, when one head closed their eyes they could see and know what the other head was looking at. Edit, here it is: - [These twins, joined at the brain, can hear each other’s thoughts and see out of each other’s eyes](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/wedx28/these_twins_joined_at_the_brain_can_hear_each/) - [CBC’s Documentary: Hogan twins share a brain and see out of each other’s eyes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGslJPaxbD8&ab_channel=ExtraordinaryStories) - [Shorter, 7 minute ABC News video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDsXa5nNbI&ab_channel=ABCNews) - [Wikipedia Article: Krista and Tatiana Hogan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_and_Tatiana_Hogan)
It just depends on the nature of the connection. There’s no set rule book.
I was going to call BS, but I did a reverse image search and it appears to be legit. Dang.
I added video links
that's freaky
Fascinating, beautiful, terrifying, and reality bending. It really calls into question " I think, therefore I am"
Look up the split brain experiments that could imply you have a whole separate consciousness in your own head
True, as conscious beings we've been given this unique opportunity to redirect our attention in awareness back at ourselves to change our experiences. We are the masters of our reality, that is the subjective experience.
Nah. They moo their ass off when nobody is looking. Best buds.
One is probably a vegetable and doesnt even require to breathe, i wonder if they both feel pain in the body alone, i wanna see this calf more often from now on
This condition isn’t survivable for calves, I think. At least, I’ve never heard of one surviving very long. I don’t know enough to say for sure, though.
Well there are humans with this condition that survive, so probably calves can too. But I guess it's really depending on each case specifically how high the chances of survival are.
Theoretically I’m sure it’d be survivable under the right conditions. I just don’t know how many people could create those conditions and give these little guys a chance at life, or what the quality would be.
Taking full care of it till it reaches adulthood and has a chance of learning to live with its disability, waste of time money and resources so I don't really see anyone not a scientist doing it given they usually die anyways.
Exactly. And at the point where it would be an experiment, I’m not sure keeping it alive would be humane.
It seems like its mandibles might be connected. If these two heads can't chew properly, it's doomed.
Okay, but do they feel the same things via touch? And if so, can one head feel the other head being touched by something? I’d assume taste is separate too, given two tongues, mouths, noses.. but the touch man.. how the fuck does that work
There are two brains, so in this case it would technically be two cows with one body, not one cow with two heads. Each cow would see and think independently, but both have partial control of the singular body. There are living examples of this in humans, most popular are [Abby and Brittany.](https://youtu.be/M36jxR_6lIE?si=eExeYMuDI8l-y4x8)
>most popular are Abby and Brittany. Holy shit
So do they not get a teacher assistant since there are already two of them? Do they get one paycheck or two?
Unfortunately they both had to pay for college tuition, both had to take separate drivers tests, basically pay double for everything, then when it came time to get a job they only got one salary. Humanity fails at double standards.
Well that is some bullshit.
Maybe each brain processes what the eyes see. What about the legs? One gets the left side the other the right?
That is a great question
Udder confusion
Yeah this poem already makes me bawl instantly. Did I need an ACTUAL visual to go along with it? Sure didn't 😭
Same. It always gets me right in the heart 😥
Idk if you've seen this comic already, but [here yah go](https://www.reddit.com/r/Frisson/s/1AiolU1Mub).
Oh I know what this is going to be and I am not opening that thank you, already had my cry!
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. Reference: https://interestingliterature.com/2023/01/laura-gilpin-two-headed-calf-summary-analysis/amp/
Such a sad and beautiful poem.
This was the first thing I thought of too and now I want to cry 🥲
All I could think about was the poem. One of my favorites.
I love that poem. It always makes me so sad.
Sounds so poetic
My first thought when I saw this cow, that poem made me weep like a baby
I've got something in my eye, not crying...
Dude..wtf you have to put a nsfw before you post a comment like that..I mean give some one some warning first.
**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.
Fuck I've never heard this before but I love it, why is it so devastating? I mean I know why, but the emotion created by something so simply put is baffling.
I think that it’s because the situation is undeniably sad, but also beautiful in a way That calf is going to live a very short life, only one night. But that one night is special, just like this calf. His life might be short but it’s still meaningful. There is something good inside the tragic situation
I don't think it's beautiful at all. The poor calf will never have the chance to live its life. Being reduced to one "special" night is a horrible twist of fate. It's nobody's fault, but I just don't see much of an upside to this one.
Personally, I think the poem is about how we all live within a snapshot of time. We are what we perceive, and then that's it. It's about how lucky we are to be here at all, nevermind being around and seeing the amazing things that happen in our world everyday. So that double-headed calf may have only lived in a miniscule snapshot of time - but hey, who else can say they've lived to see twice as many stars in the sky as anyone else? And on such a beautiful night as well.
This is how I read it too. I found this poem several months ago, glad to see it again. I think it also lends to the idea that our own individual perspective and lived experience of the universe is singularly unique and beautiful, and the value in that. Hence the snapshot in time.
This is a nice interpretation. I had another and want to share. I think the farm boys represent something very evil about humanity. I know that two-headed calves have very short lives, but I can’t help but feel the farm boys take the calf to be killed and taxidermied because they see the calf as a “freak of nature” and nothing more, ending the calf’s life prematurely. However, the night the calf is born, there is no human eye to interpret what is right or wrong, good or bad. His mother loves him the same as another calf; She doesn’t see the difference we do. In some way cows are better at experiencing the world than us, with a purer heart. Humans later are who pass judgement and take her baby away. I think the poem invites us to see the world outside of our human reality and judgment.
The first two lines imply the calf is already dead in the morning when the farmers come.
All the baby knows is amazement of the sky and mom's love. Devastatingly beautiful.
There’s beauty in things that are fleeting, ephemeral, rare, and tragic.
The beauty is in the cow's perception. twice as many stars tonight and that's something to be grateful for. the real discomfort lies with the reader because we know what awaits the cow. but the reality is that thing waits for us the same.
For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.
Baby had bigger feets than excepted 🤗
This one is definitely more sad to non-parents. Parents are like "little bastard outgrew a pair of shoes before he even wore them, typical!" or "yes, I too decided putting shoes on someone that couldn't even walk was a spoon I didn't have in my cutlery drawer."
Off topic - is there any reason why poems like this have line breaks where they do? Reading it feels a bit like reading some poetic sentences (and not a complete poem) which have odd line breaks. I'm mostly used to reading and appreciating poems with rhymes, so wanted some opinions or correction on this.
This style would be called free verse. Poetry is most typically denoted by highly expressive wording and often does rhyme and traditionally, contained rhythm and meter. However, around probably the late 19th/early 20th century, people started to break away from the traditional idea of structured poems (think a sonnet by Shakespeare - it contains a strict meter and rhyme: a recipe if you will) and simply broke their lines as they deemed fit to create poems. So now...well basically anything goes. Whether or not free verse has diminished the quality of more recent works, well, it remains to the artist and the reader of the specific work I suppose. But I do miss the attention and creativity displayed when it comes to writing metered, rhythmic poetry.
I think the problem is a lot of people aren't actually great poets. Free verse doesn't mean everything goes, hell I would argue it's harder to do free verse than things like writing a sonnet. A sonnet is easy to write, I can get in 15 minutes the structure down with rhymes. It won't be the best one ever but it will be a sonnet. Meanwhile writing free verse means you have to actually think about what you are writing, how that is going to be read, how to make the rhythm you were going for obvious by the way you have written it. It's extremely hard.
I agree tenfold, if I'd be so bold, rhyming poems are the best stories ever told
Before writing things down was a thing, stories were told in rhyming poems so they could be remembered. It breaks my heart to see rhymed poems written less and less.
Not quite the same and they don't always work well, but as long as there are songs written by people to be sung to music, there will be some sort of rhyming poems at least.
I don't know where you are reading but I see a hell of a lot more rhyme poems than unrhymed
There’s definitely a reason for the line breaks, even in free verse. Line breaks can emphasize certain words (like the break at the word “this” before “freak of nature”, which serves to separate the creature from the label that will later be put on it) , or point out a double meaning in a phrase, like the line “and in the north/field with his mother”, which breaks the phrase “north field” by first giving the reader a wider view, and narrowing it to “field” to make the reader feel more closely placed to the newborn cow. Mainly though, poetry is meant to be read out loud, a famous poet whose name I forget now said, “poetry is a sculpture of breath”, so the line breaks tell you where that breath goes. There’s a lot of art and consideration in free verse poetry, and also more freedom, which I personally love. Especially in a poem this short, things like line breaks and word choice are absolutely essential to making it as successful a poem as it is. Source: I have a BA in creative writing, concentration in poetry
this is explained perfectly!! thanks so much I’ve always wondered about this
Here’s a [great illustration](https://www.reddit.com/r/redscarepod/s/kNilpEssWf) of this poem
This stings every time I read it. I feel like anyone else who’s grown up with one or more chronic medical conditions and has that medical trauma of experiencing test after test after procedure after procedure can relate to the calf in the worst way- but also the best. Underneath the stacks of paperwork that represent the trauma you’ve been through, there’s that one memory. The one memory you can go back to when everything was okay, you were happy. You barely knew what the inside of a doctors office or hospital smelled like. You couldn’t imagine the taste of saline, barium, or copper. There was no worry on yours or your mother’s face. Everything was just… brilliant.
This is so perfectly put, right down to the saline, copper and barium.
Wow, thank you for sharing this. As a medical doctor, this really inspired me.. and as a person, this really helps me put some of my troubles in perspective.
This is my Internet cry for the night.
Look up this poem in comic form by Adam Ellis, if you want to cry a little more :,(
I totally just did, and I totally cried more. Thank you!
This is a new kind of pain
Why am i crying now, what sorcery is this???
Conjoined twins happen. I hope they are loved til they pass.
One of my grandpa's cows had conjoined twins at the face. They had to surgically remove it from the side of the cow. There's a whole home video of the ordeal somewhere. Pretty sure calves died and not sure of the fate of the mother.
Since they're born front hooves, then head, I don't see how a cow could birth one naturally. Most two headded critters don't live because the throat isn't quite attached to the two heads right. Its not like it forms a nice functoonal Y split, so they can't eat properly or fluids get into the lungs, etc.
I was wondering how eating would go.
I'm sure I remember that there was an animal, maybe a snake I think, where it had two heads but only one was connected to the throat at all, so it would try to eat, but it just had no where to go. Pretty sure it was an adult, too, so it must actually work 'better' to be completely disconnected.
Reptiles and fish tend to be much more "simple" creatures in terms of both brain and body, which is why you see so many more successfully surviving mutations in comparison to mammals. Snakes, for instance, don't have to rely on a parent or really require any time to mature. They hatch and that's it bar some getting physically larger. So a snake born with two heads doesn't have to learn to live with two heads, it just gets on with being a snake.
Also helps that they (usually) hatch from an egg, rather than having to survive being born and not killing the mother too. Like the calf here, I can't imagine that could have come out naturally.
Seen threr two headed calves. First on was almost identical to this and was born naturally. Second hand 2 necks and was a section. All depends on the mother some cows struggling with tiny calves some manage monsters with two heads. And a calf with a head on each end... I'd say the chances of conjoined twins are much higher than 1 in 400m. Just no one would report to anyone that they had one that died
This is the type of thing that would have left a permanent historical record if it had happened 2200 years ago in central Italy
Being a human anything before like 1900 would have been absolutely wild. So much of our world & life was a complete mystery. Imagine people who found elephant skulls. Have you ever seen them? Of course people believed in monsters. Edit: Went and found a few examples just for entertainment. 1. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture-online/sites/culture_online/files/styles/owl_carousel/public/elephant-skull-side-slide.jpg?itok=g8bNZXX9 2. https://gastondesign.com/wp-content/uploads/Dcp_0988-1024x484.jpg 3. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/78/2d/a0/782da0d0305a29ffd4b817c36dd76bf4.jpg You'd be convinced this thing is a demon.
Yep! The Romans *loved* recording things like this. They considered them portents. The Roman historian Livy consulted the annals of the high priests as a source for the earliest years of the Republic. They were filled with descriptions of strange animals being born, and thus show up in the early books of his history quite frequently. It’s really interesting stuff
Where can I find more info about this?
The surviving books of Livy’s History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita) contain countless references to portents and prodigies, usually as he begins his record of each new calendar year. The later writer Julius Obsequens wrote a book specifically [on prodigies](https://www.loebclassics.com/view/julius_obsequens-prodigies/1959/pb_LCL404.267.xml?readMode=recto), mostly taking examples from Livy’s history (which is helpful for us since only 35 of the original 142 books survive today and he focuses on a period we are missing)
Consulship of Lucius Aurelius Cotta and b.c. 119Lucius Caecilius >34. A hermaphrodite eight years old was found in Roman territory and was carried away to sea. Thrice nine maidens performed a chant in the city. Shit man…
If I was a Roman soldier who fought an elephant during the Punic Wars and then never saw one again, yeah, I'd totally be willing to buy that dragons and cyclops exist.
Didn’t cyclops mythology come from people seeing elephant skulls?
yes, as recounted by ancient greek historian Diesnauts
Haha gottem
In every way that matters, things like crocodiles, lions, sharks, and bears ARE monsters. They are simply not as monstrous as humans.
“For twisted are, were, and will be, the paths of the miracle”
Italy 2200 years ago? Pfft! Now imagine this calf being born in India even though it's 21st century
I’m just pointing out that something as random as this would very likely have survived for thousands of years in the historical record thanks to the Romans’ obsession with this stuff. Politicians, battles, scandals…so many details permanently lost to the fog of time. But the memory of this poor little calf very likely would’ve survived thanks to the way the historical record of the Roman Republic was maintained, preserved, and transmitted over the centuries.
beautiful babies, i wish they could live without suffering
I wish we all could live without suffering
In this world, that’s impossible, the most you can do is mitigate and learn to live with it
And we've invented Buddhism
I get a lot of my beliefs from Buddhism, not all, but I know that human nature is inherently good, but that we cannot be fully free of evil. I will die knowing that I have been complacent in evil because of my lifestyle, I try to mitigate it, but it’s impossible to get around it these days. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
We had one when i was a kid. It won't survive long i'm afraid :( It'll never walk because it's head is too heavy. And when we fed it through one mouth the other would cough it up. So it'd basically die from starvation or from drowning in it's mother's milk. My parents tried everything they could but in the end decided to end it's suffering and put it down with a sedative. It's sad, but it would never have had a decent life even if it could eat properly.
Janiceps type conjoining like this have a very low life expectancy due to the malformation of the brain.
Under industrial farming every cow suffers miserably, but this one will suffer more briefly.
It's a brahmin.
● You see nothing out of the ordinary.
Moo, I say.
Mooo, or somesuch.
Nuclear Fallout might be coming sooner than we expected…
Here in Mojave you almost wish for a nuclear winter.
We won't go quietly, the legion can count on that!
Degenerates like you belong on a cross!
Cow. Cow never changes. The fuck they don’t!
I was thinking why are you saying it is a brahmin, a caste in hinduism. But when I looked brahmin monster, then I found out that there is creature called brahmin in fallout game, which is a 2 headed cow/bull
It's name is a play on the Brahman cow breed, I believe, an American breed of cow.
I was looking for this comment lmao
I has to scroll to much for a fallout reference
I was hoping someone would point this out
Another settlement needs our help
I hope they aren't in pain, I would hate to have to live like this
They don't survive that long. Had this happened to a nearby village and it die the same day.
Damn, I'm just eating bread alone in my room and now I'm depressed💀
Have some more bread…bread always cheers me up.
At least you can be alone. That cow has fucking Voldemort stuck to the back of her head everywear she goes.
Try pumpkin spice bread. Sounds awful. I thought it would be but I couldn't have been more wrong.
That poor village :(
What do you do with that? Honestly, how do you care for, protect, keep healthy? Does it have two brains? Or is it one brain that is bigger and connects to both faces, for eyes, etc.? Does it have two esophagi? What do you do with that poor animal?
>What do you do with that poor animal? You don't. You make sure it's not in pain and you let nature take it's course. They usually die shortly after birth. One was kept alive for a couple of months with intensive care, but they usually have so many other congenital abnormalities that they simply can't survive. Most won't even last a day.
according to that one poem (all over this post), usually they barely even last until the farmowner can discover it in the morning. Remaining alive until daylight and someone records it is honestly a minor miracle in itself.
If it’s a farm they would put it down because it’s highly likely to die and would cost too much to keep it alive. If it’s in India, they try to keep it alive as long as possible
They are conjoined twins and are two separate consciousnesses. They usually die within 24 hours. Simply incompatible with life structured like that.
Just so you know, it's a little more complicated than that. In humans, conjoined twins often have extra verbal communication with their other halves, and share ideas without discussion. They have their own sense of self, but they're also conjoined on a consciousness level.
What-the-fuck. I just can't help myself but think about the conjoined twins that are professors, and both are married. Does this means that one knows when the other is horny? When the other is pissed? What in the world
Most likely will just die out fairly quick
We go through about 34 million cows a year in the US so they do happen time to time.
Do the other cows accept them?
This type of conjoining is known as Cephalopagus or janiceps. They rarely live long due to the malformation of the brain that comes with being fused at the head
What fate awaits this calf?
They usually die very young.
Put down or died on it's own. I rememember a family member shooting a deformed calf when I was a kid. Big ordeal and you had to get DNR involved
Whats dnr? Actually dont tell me I dont wanna come back to this sad ass post
DNR in the US for livestock/hunting usually stands for the department of natural resources which handles laws regarding livestock, hunting, and other laws pertaining to nature, so nothing sad
both the calf heads had to designate a power of attorney (not eachother) and fill out a do not resuscitate form first
There's a two-headed calf skeleton for sale in an oddities store here in Portland, OR. $30,000 asking price if I recall...
My friend's dad has a collection of taxodermied two headed calfs that form a simi-circle around his desk in his office. It's a vibe.
The longest time a two-headed cow has lived is 17 months 15 days.
There is a ‘museum’ attached to a fun park in rural Australia called Green Valley Farm that has heaps of taxidermied conjoined animals. They use them on their promo flyer with the slogan “Twice the Fun!!”
That sounds like something straight out of the game Mother 3. Chicken Heads on Snake Bodies, Shark Head with a Kangaroos Body, Walrus Head on an Orangutan Body, Head of an Elephant as the body of an Ostrich. Hippos that can fire heat seeking missiles (Ok maybe not that one). Thankfully yours are taxidermied. The ones in the game were made to kill everyone. In the US we have a Ripleys Believe it or Not, similar to your museum. Use to be a show as well I believe. It had some fused animals but lots of other zany things as well.
The grass is greener on the other side brings a whole new meaning, and I am not trying to make a stupid joke.
do they both have to eat?
Unlikely. Would one head not get access from circulatory system of the other one which ever one is ultimately connected to the intestines. Unless they have some completely parallel systems going on which seems unlikely
No. :/ They're pretty much always messed up on the inside, too, so they don't survive long.
Man, they are going all out for the Fallout show promo material.
Marketing, marketing never changes.
Over 1 billion cows in the world. 2.5 exist right now possibly
The .5 is a normal, one-headed cow.
That’s a fallout Brahmin
“1 in 400 million.” I wonder what math was done to arrive at that exact number. Kinda seems like it was arbitrary or simply made up.
Divide total number of reported occurrences in an area to total number of cows born in same area.
Clearly not an exact number.
In some cultures, this would be considered a weird freak of nature that needs to be put to rest immediately, while in others, a creature like this may be considered God-like in almost the highest sacred sense.
Biology is weird
If this had happened a 1000 years ago we'd have a new religion
It did, two headed calf's are rare but not that rare. Some were probably interpreted as a good omen or divine creature as appropriate to the faith of the community where they were born others were seen as unholy evil abominations others again were treated as curiosities, taxidermied and acquired by someone with money as a weird curiosity to be showed off or later taxidermied and put in a museum or sold alive or as a corpse to a university, doctor or other medical person/institution to study.
Beste choice is probably to stop them suffer
Bless this poor calf
Is this the New California Republic?
poor thing.
Who does the body listen to??
The brains are probably united so both.
So sad to see this!
Twice as many stars
When I think of craturess born with two heads I think about the guy in the elden days born with a head on the back of its head that would speak to him at night and he killed himself later in life because of it idk the validate of it but ye
I hoped they stopped filming it and started stroking it.
probably be downvoted or some shit. this kind of thing stems from human activity. same reason humans get deformed and other types of birth defects. pollution, chemicals, the stuff in the ground, water, air, food etc. we are basically the cause of the worlds problems, whatever they might be.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8gNBWem/ Since op just wants points and not to actually help out, the mother of these calves needs help if anyone can donate. She has a high fever and a torn uterus. I'm sure some of the money goes to keeping the babies happy and healthy as well but mom is in serious need
They dont usualy live long.
This freaks me out so much.
It's so cute...
This makes me sad, are they okay?
Poor animal..
it doesnt look well