Familysick

My dad is the only one home tonight,

yet on the Google Hangout

between some of my 6 siblings 

- spread from Wyoming to the Carolinas -

and him,

he reports a pang of homesickness.

Isn't that what all of us should feel for where he is?

And he should be feeling "homewell"?

Instantly, I feel it, too: not so much a longing for home,

(indeed, I'd travel far to feel it)

but rather a yearning for

inside jokes,

comfort built of an inability to maintain pretense,

argument-mates who'll still be around tomorrow,

conversationalists conversant with certain topics of interest and geekiness,

and other ineffable qualities

that all mean just a fraction of what family is 

to me.

That is why I am family-sick, 

which seems weird to say,

having a family of my own that is upstairs as we speak,

but sometimes don't you adults just wonder what it would be like

if all your early-years family were under the same roof again?

Perhaps it would get ugly at times - I'm sure it would - 

but you still wonder, 

or,

at least,

I do.