Informed by the death of a beloved brother, here are the stories of childhood, its thicket of sex and sorrow and joy, boys and girls growing into men and women, stories of a brother who in his dying could teach how to be most alive. Over and over again these astonishing poems touch the place where the inner life and the outer world meet, the moments when we realize that we are still living.What do the living do? They make breakfast, park cars, bury the dead, shovel snow, kmake love, return videos; they suffer and survive and remember and speak. Daring, clearm heartbreaking, provocative, compassionate, these poems tell unforgettable stories of all our lives.