Haunting

Death is incomprehensible in so many respects.

I understand it on a medical level, but there is so much more to a person than just their beating heart and breathing lungs.

How can a body look so soft and alive and feel so cold?

How can I believe those eyes are not going to open again, twinkling when you say, "Still alive, dammit?"

How can I not call and get that awful connection with my own words echoing back at me while we try to solve the world's problems when we can't even make your phone work right?

How can I believe that I won't be taking anymore road trips on little ferries and up winding cliff roads?

I'll never see a bald eagle without thinking of you.

I'll never pass a royal blue PT Cruiser without hoping it's you.

You never made that last trip up here, but somehow I feel you near me.

You swore you were gonna haunt me and I told you not to, but now I wonder . . .