Great Aunt Anne

Woman of spongy lungs
and movie star teeth

Hoarder of old books
rubber bands and bits
of ivory

With cat scratched sofas
ceilings yellow stained
by nicotine

Baby sister spinster aunt
Not so baby now

Roared through London in a
nappy white ketchup crossed
ambulance

Wah wah wah wah while
bombs bit
holes in houses

Tore bodies as though
they were crusty baguettes

Great Aunt Anne
Miss Marple-dressed
keeps clues in patch pockets

Jewellery boxes and old jars
Has old dresses in her closet
Encrusted with colonial mud

Great Aunt Anne's lungs
a pair of puff ball mushrooms
stomped on by cattle foot

Can't contain the air the smoke
the debris any more
So has to give up smoking.

How to mark the summit
of each hour when
the flags have been taken away?

Great Aunt Anne smashes bone
china on the floor, yells
No you can't stay for lunch

Because I don't feel like eating!
Mouth stuffed with peppermints
a profusion of white as though

Movie star teeth have
divided and multiplied
Snow freeze hair do