To Fill the Absence April 4, 2011: ...and what if thou withdraw In silence from the living, and no friend Take note of thy departure? All that breathe Will share thy destiny…. —from William Cullen Bryant’s "Thanatopsis" "Thanatos." The young man who uttered the word didn’t know it had been years since I’d heard it or any variation on it. It immediately lanced me, [...] by Wanda Coleman