 and she told me he'd recited Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven to the nurses and physicians, delirious from medication. I remembered when he'd first taught me poetry, testing me on stanzas. At three, when I'd repeated an entire poem, he'd shared my heart, he'd kissed my forehead and said, you're so smart, unwittingly sealing my fate. I thought for sure he'd pull through again. I was stunned when my oldest brother called to tell me we'd lost him.