Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Good Bones by Maggie Smith

Life is short, though I keep this from my children. 
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, 
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children. 
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. 
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, 
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you, 
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, 
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful, 
right? You could make this place beautiful.