The Tragedy of the Commons
Growing up won’t give me
what I need to know.
The Kmart is out of love and I think
they were the last ones to have any.
Giving is just taking from someone to let
someone else take whatever you took.
I wanted to take love and put it somewhere
but didn’t know where. Now there’s no love left.
The first modern humans appeared 200,000 years ago,
and people have been taking from them ever since.
Apartment Story
Most of my life takes place
in my apartment, and most of my
roommate’s life takes place
in my apartment. Megan Ermilio
comes for dinner and my roommate
is on his computer. He closes the door,
and I feel uncomfortable. He comes out,
and Megan and I are in the middle of
a conversation I’m not enjoying. Megan says,
Everyone is at some point supposed to be
very depressed. You know that, right? It’s
a part of living. I think my roommate thinks
she’s talking about him and he feels
uncomfortable, but she’s talking about
me. She says, Living, once more with more
emphasis, as if she has authority to make
statements like that. I nod and pretend like I agree
though I’m not quite sure that I do.
And Megan!
You know you’re my favorite. It’s just that
you have this way of saying things that makes me
believe you, and I do believe you! Or maybe
I just want to believe you. I think you believe
certain things to comfort yourself—we all
do! But what I wanted to say at dinner was,
When someone’s life happens
so closely to someone else’s there’s no way
to live with emphasis on living.
Colin Drohan studies literature and writing at New York University. He was born in Chicago and lives both in New York and on Twitter.