we are all statistics

we are all statistics


‘we are all statistics’

noted the statistician 

as he stood on the beach

explaining

to the gathered children

that his cells 

would stretch to the sun and back 

61 times

and his 

10 pints of blood 

would be enough

to feed a 

100 colony of vampire bats 

for 

20 days

and his 

32 teeth

if made into an axe

would be able to chop through

13 feet of silver birch wood

before they broke



and he would 

of course

have been able to work out

the chances of becoming 

the first 

collector and interpreter of numerical data

to be killed

by a suicidal seagull

if only 

he had known.