Statistics

Bonnie Salomon, MD

Between two sheets of standard deviation

She lies in her starched hospital bed.

Glancing past the window,

She reviewed the possibility

Of death at 40.

The sampling error, random, yet cruel,

Plucked her from the population.

The mass in her right ovary

Blossomed like a killing flower:

Powerful and deadly.

At night, the IV pump flashes lights,

Forcing red numbers into her veins.

Dream:

She glides down the bell-shaped curve

To the far end, to safety,

To the golden island of 5-year survivors.

Lotus eaters sip nectar (grow drowsy)

From god-smiling goblets.

Awake:

Her doctor's gaze, dry, empty.

He speaks...

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