How we stayed whole after divorce

I'VE NEVER BEEN GOOD AT MATH. AFTER NEARLY failing algebra in high school, I chose to attend a liberal-arts college in part-in large part-because there was no general math requirement.

- MAGGIE SMITH

Even now I'm sometimes criticized for using "bad math"-unrealistic statistics-in the poem I'm most known for, "Good Bones." In that poem I wrote, "The world is at least fifty percent terrible" and "For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird." For the record, I realize there aren't an equal number of birds and rocks on this planet. I'm well aware that though the world often feels "at least half terrible," it's not a provable percentage.

I'm a poet, not a mathematician. But each time "Good Bones" goes viral, typically after a tragedy, the literalists make their presence known in the comments: "You need to take a math class! These ratios are impossible!"

After the song "Yesterday" was released, did anyone complain to Paul McCartney, "You're not half the man you used to be! That's impossible! You're still a whole person!" I doubt it. Still, feeling less than whole-particularly in one's grief-is a pervasive metaphor.