What are the Odds?

The day breaks slow this January morn

the cloud filled sky cast in ombré gray,

cold sun reluctant to show its face.

As I scan across the barren yard

past the remnants of the last snowfall

still floating atop winter-brown grass,

it dawns on me that this is an odd year.

Not only in the political sense—

I mean, how strange is it that a reality T.V. host,

self-endorsed politician, business man, millionaire—

has promised to be a champion for the people?

—The man who would be President—

Yet, even more so for us, in the numerical sense.

Odd years have never been lucky years…

if bad luck or illness will transpire,

it always chooses the ‘odd’ year.

2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015

surgery, illness, lay-off, more surgery…

I tick off our laundry list of misfortune and misery.

And yet, the optomist in me still struggles

to break the surface,  even as the sun itself

emerges from behind its gray cloud curtain.

I defer, as we so often do, to a movie quote,

an earworm reverberating through my head:

 “May the odds be ever in your favor”

Indeed—

           

            May they be in all of ours.

©  Ginny Brannan 2017