Last Cut All firsts. You let me drive. You let me choose the radio station. You rested your huge head against the headrest, closed your eyes. Never a willing passenger. Seventy-five quiet kilometres to the London Regional Palliative…
After a long well-fought battle with cancer, my brother left this world far too young. He left three children and a load of powerful memories that I have no idea where to put. He was two years my senior and extremely competitive. Sports and fighting were our only method of communication. Win or lose was our emotional intelligence inheritance. We shared a great love for each other but few words, so I search for them continually in his memory.
As for form, I just try to keep it as short as possible and factual, which isn’t as easy, as my imagination is as strong as he was—infinitely horsepowered. I send these caught moments into the world with hope that they will help others house their own memories.
I miss playing our games, Jon. Miss you, brother.
DM O’CONNOR has an MFA from University College Dublin and the University of New Mexico. He is a contributing reviewer for Rhino Poetry and fiction editor at Bending Genres. His work has appeared in Splonk, A New Ulster, Fractured Lit, Cormorant, Crannog, Opossum, The New Quarterly, The Irish Times, The Guardian, and others. He is the recipient of the 2021 Cúirt New Writing Prize, Tom-Gallon Trust Award, and is the current writer-in-residence at the Kerouac House.
