Probability Neglect

The chance of something wonderful
Or truly terrible for you,
Your family, whoever you
Consider to be your people,

Is always there, generally rare.
If it’s both unlikely enough
And wonderful or horrible
Enough, it can obsess you out

Of all proportion to the odds
Of it actually happening.
Truly enormous lotteries
And extra-grisly diseases

Are among textbook examples
Of unlikely fates to dwell on,
But come on. There’s apocalypse
And immortality out there,

Always lurking in the latest
News, and aliens good or bad,
Wise or ravening monster swarms
For tentacular first contact.

There’s the idea that all of this
Science of probability
Is going to make life better
Or rob you of humanity.