Judith Luongo
were you there?
there are not many of us left
who were there
but your voice has a familiar cadence
clipped with the questions
that no longer get asked
smelling like mother earth
on her wedding day
our eyes must have met once
over salty births
and molten christenings
though at the time
there was enough between us
to make our congress
a cruelty
oh, but all the loss has
made a place for such a thing
as us
if you would care to swap
questions with someone
who was there
if you would choose to mourn
a world
empty enough for us to meet
with one of the few
who remain
Lucia Larsen (she/her) is currently studying for her MSc in Environmental Management at the University of Stirling. Her published work can be viewed at linktr.ee/lucialarsen and she can be found on Twitter @mslucialarsen.
Judith Luongo has spent many years searching for clues about how we manage to keep evolving and surviving as imperfect, conflict ridden beings. Her art is informed by her practice as a Creative Arts Therapist and Psychoanalyst as well as by her many years of teaching Creative Arts Therapists. Judith’s work has moved through a period devoted to dreamy landscapes to character studies through portraiture and the figure. For the past five years she has been passionate about an abstract expressionist approach as she seeks to deepen her inquiry into the palpable presence of that which is unspoken and unspeakable. Her work has been shown at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition; Pratt Institute; and Michael David & Co.