every family has 'the' aunt - the one that is strange the one grown ups are reluctant to mention in the company of innocent children

when they grow up the cousins sometimes chat...

do you remember aunt virginia?

she never married...

(wasn't she the one who had the abortion?)

(wasn't she the one who liked girls?)

(wasn't she the one who liked the gardener?)

(and didn't she drink?)

no      nothing that bad-

she was the one who looked after her mother for twenty years;

she looked after her mother until she took a pillow to her

suffering mother's face

one of the pretty pillows she had worked out in cross stitch

for hours and hours

for years and years

sitting next to mother's bed

she stitched and stitched

(eventually only her fingers bled)

which pillow was it, dear?

the one with white jesus on the cross?

the one with blood roses and their thorns?

the one with the baby faces in blue embroidery?

(wasn't she the one who had the broken heart?)

every family has that aunt     the skeleton in their closet

in my family

i guess,

she is already me    

seasofme090613holly

but aren't i amazing...! (i had better add that by 'i' i mean the images of me, skeleton aunt...)