I Need You Still. I carry you in the spaces no one sees the hollow silence between breaths, the ache beneath my smile, the cry that never fully leaves my chest. You should be here. Not just in memories, not just in dreams, but here growing, laughing, spilling light into this world like only you could. I miss your voice the lilt of it, the rhythm. I replay it over and over like a favorite song I never got to hear enough. I miss your laugh that bright, golden joy that could lift me from the deepest dark. Even now, I reach for it like it might still echo through the walls. This life without you is like walking barefoot on shattered glass every step, pain. Every joy, hollowed by your absence. I want to hold you. Wrap you in the arms that never got to say goodbye. Brush your hair behind your ear. Whisper, “Stay a little longer, baby.” But you are gone. And still my love stretches across heaven and begs the stars to send you back. I need you still. In the chaos. In the quiet. In the places you should be but aren’t. And yet I go on because your light deserves to be known, because your story matters, because loving you will never, ever end. -Heather Wyatt