longed for

so far away

but still belonging

wanted, longed for

bringing with a hug

an inundation of joyful tears

overcome

emotional blow bowed me to rest

my head on the chair back in front of me

i could not stand up without my son

holding me as i sobbed

my Ted had flown in from the Midwest

as a surprise set up with the family

not seeing him for a year

or more at a time

i knew the hunger of longing

but had not realized how the deep

the pining ached until he held me

in his arms

pieta

twenty-two-year-old sculpts marble

drapes folds, forms, features

in the agony of surviving

love and loss that weeps in souls

in generation after generation