extract from ‘father, i’m keeping the kid’ by karen o’shea (1986)

“i fell in love once, when i wasn’t looking where i was going. her name escapes me now but i know it rhymed with ‘orange’. we did everything that couples do and did. that is to say, we spent a lot of time together in different rooms – the cinema, the restaurant, the bedroom, the living room, the terminal, the bar. but for some reason, she died one afternoon. it was an act of unparalleled cruelty on her part. i was finally starting to understand what the ramones haven’t been singing about. she had gotten through all of my ridiculous masks and found the rather plain person underneath. i’ll never make that mistake again.”

share your pity, don’t use it all on yourself