Right in the feels

[nonethefewer]

A poem. TW: description of child abuse in the middle of it.

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.

-- 'Good Bones' by Maggie Smith

Comments

[siderea]

I like. Thanks for sharing.

It reminds me, possibly because of the season, of ELP's "I Believe in Father Christmas", which is from the other side.

[tiger_spot]

I love that poem.