Poetry

Odds

I have often wondered
(to myself of course)
What the odds are,
that two people,
out of all the millions on earth
Can fall in love,
With each other,
At the same time.

I mean I realize that there are limits,
in that
only so many people
can live within
a certain place,
at a certain time;
and despite what romance novelists
tell us
very few people
fall madly in love
with some complete stranger
while traveling on a train
in Europe,
or something.

This narrows the odds a bit
from two in millions
to two in hundreds,
(or maybe thousands).
But even so!
The odds are against it.
(aren't they?)

Yet it happens every day
in almost every life.
People fall in love
and get married
and live their whole lives together.

Despite the law of probability,
chances are that everyone,
at one time or another,
will love
(and be loved by)
someone.

So I wonder,
with all these odds
thrown out all over the place,
what are the chances
that I would still be
alone?

Rachel Fox