{"id":2429,"date":"2026-08-17T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2429"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:30:25","slug":"longing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2429","title":{"rendered":"Longing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
On this festeringly hot and muggy Monday 
in the doldrums of the D.C. suburbs,
I may be in Maryland, but Maine lingers
on my mind, in my body. 

This first day back after a vacation 
brings with it a dulling, a blending of fact and fiction, 
a beckoning back to the place where I was last unscheduled, 
at the whim of my feet, wallet and stomach.

I yearn for once last bite of summer.
I could dive deeply into a triptych 
of sea-sweet, pink tail meat and slippery claw
freshly extracted from cold water, 
rocky cove-dwelling Malacostracans
\u2014better known as lobsters.

I close my eyes, pretend that 
my sweat-streaked, banker's blue button-down 
is instead the wide open ceilings of Portland's sky.
I launch back a few days, tumbling through time.

I reunite with my soul-happy self:
the version of me holding a paper boat 
laden with perky mini rolls
while perched on a stool at an open-air bartop
in high noon sun, where my Chronically Inside skin 
met welcome, gentle rays drawing me like a stick of unsalted.

I can feel that hefty 'Bite into Maine' luncheon platter in my hand:
anointed with warm butter, or curry,
or celery salt and chives, each of three griddled rolls 
overflowed with bounty.
Show-stoppers individually; together they evoke tears.

The bead of perspiration that drips down my clavicle,
earned from a punishing, confusing overcast glare
dislodges me from my summer lovin' on lobster dreams.

Back within my present circumstances, 
my closest substitute for a prize roll
is a Ziploc of stale pretzels stashed for an emergency, 
in my non-file-containing filing cabinet.
Salty, like those pretzels, I thirst for more.








<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cLonging,\u201d a day dream harkening back to the summer pleasures of a local Maine lobster roll interrupted by the realities of the office day, written Monday, August 17, 2026 poem 229 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: “Lobster Roll Still Life,”  by Diana Ludwick \u00a9 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2126,262,552,2358,290,200,1572,2,2353,551],"tags":[2184,2408,2400,2405,2413,1839,2419,2412,2422,2415,2404,1838,2299,2398,2399,2402,2406,2416,653,2421,2420,2407,2356,2410,2411,2417,2401,2414,134,1356,2418,2423,2403,1827,2409],"class_list":["post-2429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-culinary","category-dry-humor","category-faux-lament","category-food-tourism","category-homage","category-humor","category-of-place","category-poems","category-travel","category-unserious","tag-august","tag-bankers-blue","tag-bite-into-maine","tag-body","tag-butter","tag-chives","tag-clavicle","tag-curry","tag-dreams","tag-emergency","tag-fact-and-fiction","tag-high-summer","tag-lobster","tag-lobster-rolls","tag-maine-lobster","tag-malacostracans","tag-mind","tag-non-file-containing-filing-cabinet","tag-office","tag-overcast","tag-perspiration","tag-picnic-table","tag-portland","tag-pretzels","tag-salt","tag-salty","tag-soul-happy","tag-substitute","tag-summer","tag-tears","tag-thirst","tag-unsalted","tag-unscheduled","tag-vacation","tag-ziploc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2429"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}