Numbers, Numerals, and Digits, By Mark Tulin—The Drabble

First published in The Drabble. Featured image copyrighted by Mark Tulin. 

Numbers, Numerals, and Digits

By Mark Tulin

I wasn’t fond of numbers when I went to school;
GPAs and SATs, heights and weights,
grades and equivalency test scores.
As an older adult, they’re even worse.
Doctors define me by medical categories,
dependent on numerical ranges.
If my blood sugar is too high—that’s toxic.
Too low—a diabetic curse.
When my numbers skyrocket,
they hospitalize me,
put me on medication,
or give me a prostate operation
to drop me down the Gleason Scale.
But it’s never wholly satisfactory
even when my unhealthy levels decline.
Numbers, numerals, and digits can never be controlled
by human intervention alone.

           
“I write about the people I care about.” – the writer