Poems October 2021
“Anatomy is destiny”
“Anatomy is destiny”
—Sigmund Freud
The fallacy behind this try at writ—
What matters is which way you’re genitalled—
Cohabits with the larger truth of it.
Consider, as a case of this, my eyes.
In the time it took my mother’s milky gaze
To register what more than once she called
Their beauty (milliseconds, one would guess)
My infant self was lastingly endowed
With an instance of the ultimate largesse:
A love that proved conducive, as the parent’s
Love it was, to a life that I, on balance,
Would have to call a blessing to have had.
—Dan Brown
A Message from the Editors
As The New Criterion enters its fifth decade, your support has never been more vital.
Since 1982, The New Criterion has nurtured and safeguarded our delicate cultural inheritance. Join our family of supporters and secure the future of civilization.
This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 40 Number 2, on page 31
Copyright © 2022 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2021/10/anatomy-is-destiny