My Father, My Greatest Man
To My father,
I still do not know how to say goodbye
to someone who felt like home.
You were the strength I leaned on
before I understood what strength was,
the voice that made the world feel safer,
the hands that held my life together
in ways I never thanked you for enough.
Now there is only the silence
where your laughter used to live,
only the empty space
where I still expect to find you,
only memories
that hurt because they are all I have left.
I keep reaching for you
in the moments that break me,
in the nights that feel too long,
in the grief that comes quietly
and leaves me trembling.
You were not just my father.
You are And always will be my best friend and I chose you over anyone,
You were my shelter,
my example,
my greatest man.
And losing you feels like losing
the part of the world
that made sense.
If love could have saved you,
you would still be here.
If tears could bring you back,
I would never stop crying.
But all I can do now
is carry you inside me
like a wound that will never heal and a blessing that will never stop,
like a prayer I will never finish saying.