--I’M JUST SITTING HERE CRYING, THINKING ABOUT ALICIA KEYS

…It’s a soggy, gray day and there are men outside my house with loud wind-blowing contraptions, so I thought I’d pull this out (something I wrote a while back):

The Sweater

I am the black

Sweater

You left behind

On the love seat

Love no longer an option

Love seat

Love

My yarn is tight

Fine Egyptian cotton

Mercerized

Top stitched and fully-fashioned.

Your skin

It used to sit or swish

Inside of me

Against my limbs and lengths

My sleeves and being

You took me places

Folded me

Kept me clean

Now I am a heap of yarn

Dead threads

Smelling of your perfume

But mostly

Reeking rust and

Regret

…Here are a few things I learned of late:

-37% of men have cried in the last month

-5% of men say they have never cried

-56% have applied moisturizer in the last month

-28% of men have never applied moisturizer

-In 1983 20% of the U.S. workforce was unionized

In 2013 11.3% is

-27.1% of U.S. adults were obese as of 2013, up from 25.4% in 2008

-33% of all workers have saved less than $1,000 for retirement and 66% have saved less than $25,000 (wonder how that’s going to work out.  Yikes.)