Good Bones

 3/14/2026 (c) 

Thirty years after the civil war

a newly developed 1%

made up of the richest 4,000 in the US—

gathered at the New York Waldorf Hotel

to celebrate their accelerated wealth,

status and determination to keep it all.

 

The agricultural country flipping

to Industrial—

thank you, Pennsylvania Railroad.

Bless you, Standard Oil.

Your untold wealth kidnaps our dreams.

 

Thank you, townships, your hungry

populations crowding into cities. 

We’ve become tools—

 

My legs suffer sore locomotion

over concrete cracks and uneven floorboards.

My back is bent.

I disintegrate from the inside out.

You’ve made my body into another worn structure

ready for you to rezone and bulldoze—

or at least, abandon.

 

Thank you, Barons for those cold steel beams—

as if they are “good bones”.

 

All those lies about living forever.

All I want now is to sit and drink coffee

and read a few good books—