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Left Leaning

When set free to wander about in any direction, new research says that we bear left. It is, quite literally,

the path we take in life, the pivot our feet prefer wherever we think we’re headed. So, as we stroll,

most of us drift counterclockwise, gently nudged that way, it seems, by our nature. No matter how

righthanded we may be, our feet are contrarians and we must walk with them. A friend thinks

we’re just following our heart which, after all, weighs in on the left side and, in its deepest

inclination, bends towards kindness. It would be nice to think we’re liberal in our leanings, that we

shy away from far-right turns on the issues of the day, especially if we find ourselves voting

with our feet after power has lost its way and even if science never really works out why

our steps feel the pull of this good gravity the way the needle of a compass must seek magnetic north.

8 More Selected Poems — Charles Brown

© 2026 Charles Brown — June 2026

See the article in the NYT dated June 12, 2026