A POEM FOR A SUNDAY: 9/29/24*

GOOD BONES by Maggie Smith/DEATH IN LEAMINGTON by John Betjeman

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 …