The Missing Poem by Zachary Rea

You were the piece that finished our family puzzle.
No matter what happened, no matter what problems arose from the deep blue
You always kept us together like glue.
That's why we were all scared when we came to know of the beast inside you.
It felt wrong. It seemed like a mistake. You weren't supposed to get sick.
It was too early for you.
Even when you ran through thunder clouds of stress raining teardrops
you still saw the sunshine in the sky.

You were the best a nephew could ask or hope for,
and I only said those special words once.
The last time I saw you.
Do you remember them? I do.
I should have said them more, why didn't I?
I wonder some nights if you knew how much I truly loved you.

When I received the news of your passing
It felt like my heart turned into a gaping black hole,
drawing me into a universe of darkness
shooting me with stars, slicing my body, acquiring scars.

You were the piece that finished our family puzzle
And with you gone it is no longer whole.
We can't grab a similar piece from another puzzle
it would still look wrong, no matter how much we accepted it.

You were a piece that could never be replaced,
Since you're gone our family puzzle will always be incomplete.