Hi, my name is Anna Akana and I chose Good Bones by Maggie Smith because it makes me feel connected to both the hopefulness and the total utter despair that is humanity and the human experience.

Good Bones

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.