Patrick Widdess (8.27.06)

Improbable

Against odds of more than 99 trillion to one
a man fell against a wall whilst drunk
and passed straight through.
He awoke hours later unable to remember how he got
there.

These things happen all the time.
Fish rise from the sea bed to quote chapter and verse,
Corpses re-awake briefly in the morgue when no one's
looking,
The car keys you thought you lost turned into a clump
of moss
you never noticed wasn't there before.

These things happen.
So why marvel when a prophet's face appears in a fish
finger
or long lost relatives are seated together on a plane?

In Russia scientists have dummies propped against
walls,
and furniture sealed in rooms under surveillance,
waiting for it to move, change shape or combust,
waiting for that moment of improbability.

And when it comes they will know no more
than that man who went home to nurse his head
and never found his phone,
which fell from his pocket on the other side.