Gearoid O'Brien poet and broadcaster. His poems have appeared in Neptune's Kingdom, Prospice (Scotland) and Poetry Ireland Review (Dublin). In recent times he has had work published in Abridged (Derry), Revival (Galway), Ropes (Galway), The Stony Thursday Book (Limerick) The Blue Max Review (Fermoy) and the anthology 'I Live in Michael Hartnett'. He won the Desmond O'Grady International Poetry Competition in 2013 and the Hanna Greally Literary Award for Poetry in 2015. He received a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2016 for his poem in The Shot Glass Journal # 18. He works as a librarian in the public library service in his native Athlone.

Gearoid O'Brien

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Deprived

We grew up deprived of a sister
With two brought to full-term
But died in a heart-beat,

So when she was offered
A surrogate daughter
Our mother didn't need
To think twice

But an all-knowing priest
Closing the case decreed:
"We can't put a little girl
Into a house with four boys"

And so
We grew up deprived of a sister
– His was the cruellest cut of all.