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.