<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">Good Bones</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">Life is short, though I keep this from my children. </div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, </div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">estimate, though I keep this from my children. </div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. </div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, </div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">is at least half terrible, and for every kind</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">stranger, there is one who would break you, </div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">though I keep this from my children. I am trying</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, </div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">walking you through a real shithole, chirps on</div><div style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);" class="">about good bones: This place could be beautiful, </div><p class="last-line" style="line-height: 1; text-indent: -20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; color: rgb(55, 55, 55);">right? You could make this place beautiful.</p><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Maggie Smith</div></body></html>