Much tiresome work amounted to his death, but insurmountable resilience plagued his life. Sobriety, marriage, fatherhood, entrepreneurship. Un-hating his father, un-resenting his step-mom, recanting needles, renouncing the man he was. Cancer ate away at him, but he couldn’t die alone—not my brother. We sing for you, Prince of Toledo.

Charlotte Keller is a writer from northwest Ohio. She is an MFA student at Western Michigan University and a poetry co-editor for WMU’s literary magazine, Third Coast. She has been published in The Periwinkle Pelican, Planet Venus, and ReCap Literary Magazine.