Keep to the Subject....

This morning, I was listening to Garrison Keillor's little 5-minute spot on NPR, The Writer's Almanac. As usual, it was divided into three sections. Not as usual, the middle part had -nothing- to do with writing. I notice that even the Wikipedia entry hedges this by saying it's "usually" about writing. Well, then, how about "The Usually About Writer's Almanac?"

Part 1 was a bio of Charles Simic, a poet I would respect if the only lines he had written were Ax.*

Part 2 commemorated the invention of the birth control pill.

Part 3 was a poem by Donald Justice, one I had never heard, and which didn't convince me that Justice has anything in particular to recommend his poetry.

Wait a minute....what was that second part again? And why......?

*AX

Whoever swings an ax
Knows the body of man
Will again be covered with fur.
The stench of blood and swamp water
Will return to its old resting place.

They’ll spend their winters
Sleeping like bears.
The skin on the throats of their women
Will grow coarse. He who cannot
Grow teeth, will not survive.
He who cannot howl,
Will not find his pack....

These dark prophecies were gathered
Unknown to myself, by my body
Which understands historical probabilities,
Lacking itself, in its essence, a future.

— Charles Simic

.....and so much for birth control pills.