I am not a statistic

Cherry

By onemorething

Fri, 26 Jul 2019
  • 1577 reads
7 comments
 

You shouldn’t try to measure

my life in scores and percentages

or attempt to neatly predict 

my decisions in ratios:

I am not 10:1 anything.

All responses based on prior experience

are not data to manage,

I cannot be summed up

in graphic illustrations;

my emotions can’t be squeezed

into a pie chart of 34 percent sad

or 10 percent mad, our ups

and downs can’t be represented

on lines when we are both x and y,

I can’t be surveyed, my warm blood,

and entered into your empty spreadsheet:

we are not calculable

in the frigidity of numbers,

do not reduce me to this,

it is not all simply maths

and I do not want to be a statistic.

 

Image from pixabay.

Certificate U
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Comments

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Terrific. I'm with you on this. 

Rich

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks! Glad I have anti-statistical support! 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Wonderful! I can't imagine how you managed for seven years to write nothing, although I guess we're the lucky recipients of everything you stored up in your brain - keep going!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Well, am glad that I feel I can again now though my new fear is that I suddenly won’t feel able to again, but will keep going. Thanks for the supportive comment. :)

 

Submitted by David Kirtley on

Great poem, particularly because of what you are saying and how you say it. Very well expressed. The human race can now start to take back our world I hope. Although I think Boris Johnson did mention the word 'productivity' in one of his speeches, which did make me shiver just a little. Is it possible to 'increase productivity' any more after these recent decades of ever increasing efficiency.

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks David. Just the thought of Boris Johnson gives me a shudder. It would be nice to think though, wouldn’t it, that we could all embrace more of our humanity. Thanks for reading my poem and leaving such a thoughtful comment. 

 

 

Submitted by celticman on

I guess you're right and wrong. It doesn't matter what you think. Data is extrapolated with or without your consent. The choices you are presented with (in the future) will be data points in your past. Sad can't be measure, but true = one.