This piece strikes a personal chord, painting through the feelings of losing my dad. Here is a poem that goes with it:

The feeling of missing someone—
that is something ferocious.
I recall days in the woods where my mind would wander as my bones grew cold sitting at the base of a tree. The rustle of grey squirrels in fallen leaves or the groan of two hemlocks rubbing in a strong wind would transform into fantasy moments of a bear emerging from a tree line, or breathing behind the very trunk where my back rest.

I miss you something fierce today.

Some days it’s a gentle hum of memories that effortlessly spread a smile across my lips.

Yet others, missing you strikes full-force.
Just like that fantasy bear I never did encounter,

at least not ‘til life without you.