Grieving from a distance

I have written quite a bit about grief over the last few years here. And again, I'm grieving a loss, as you will have read yesterday. As my good friend buried her youngest son today, I sought a way to appropriately process that from this great distance. I have made it to very few funerals over my life, usually because I haven't been in the "right" place and without a budget or capacity to get to the funeral.

The last time I wrote a poem was April 2018, on the anniversary of another death. I am not a poet or particularly a consumer of poetry, but it seems as though grief is one thing that prompts me to "get poetic." However badly written, it helped me to write this to my friend this afternoon.

From a distance

When we said goodbye to you
All those years ago at an airport
Three kids between us
An adventure ahead
We never imagined
The heartaches that would follow

That parting was rough
But we didn’t know
The grieving would never end
That each time we’d meet
We’d have to part again
And reopen that wound

Now we have nine kids between us
One of yours just gone to heaven
I wanted to be by your side
But that was not to be
I’m grateful for the years we’ve walked 
Together, yet apart
I know our prayers and friendship bridge the gap 
But I long for that hug that I know is waiting till next time we meet

We still don’t know what lies ahead
What else will come our way
But I’m thankful for what we have
The abundant love we’re been given
Though our journey is not unmarred
Though our grief never ends
There remains the joy of friends waiting to reunite
A friendship that knows that distance doesn’t limit