Statistics

when my parents announced their separation
it came as a shock

in the subsequent afternoons, driving home from school
my mind drifted to the oft heard statistic

50% of marriages end in divorce

ours was a religious home
a family that prayed together, stayed together

until we didn't
and then many of us prayed harder

and my father bought and blew a shofar
--got really into the old testament

my mother moved into an apartment across town

my brother was off at college

it was just me and my dad
and his shofar

until it wasn't

until it was a night here and there
that he didn't come home

and it was just me praying
and it was God I thought I heard speaking
telling me to go to Italy

and so, I went
and when I came back home

my dad's shofar was replaced
with a blonde, new wife and mother of three

and my stuff was in boxes

it was out with the old
and in with the new

and there was an awkward
really painful year

and at the end of that year
a new statistic came true

1 in 3 don't have a Dad
in their lives

and that 1 was me