Oregon Literary Review

From the current issue.

clipped from www.oregonlitrev.org Dorianne Laux SECOND CHANCES What are the chances that a raindrop from last night’s storm caught in the upturned cup of an autumn leaf will fall from this tree I pass under and land on the tip of my lit cigarette, snuffing it out? What are the chances my niece will hit bottom before Christmas, a drop we all long for, and quit heroin? What are the chances of being hit by a bus, a truck, a hellbound train, or inheriting the gene for cancer, diabetes, addiction? What good are statistics on a morning like this? What good is my niece to anyone but herself? What are the chances any of you are reading this poem? Dear men, whom I have not met, when you meet her on the street wearing the wounds that won’t heal and she offers you the only thing she has left, have pity on her fallen body.