Aunt Leota

Aunt Leota

I remember her well
the thick coarse dishwater blonde hair
the voice raspy from too many cigarettes
not sexy like Bacall
the way she walked one hand on hip
the other holding the eternal flame
scattering ashes
from her cremated baton
spouting her wisdom words
for all trapped within her hearing
pacing the linoleum
floor of my grandmother's kitchen lamenting
how sad my Uncle Dudley's divorce
from Aunt Hallie but it served him right for
marrying such a trollop,
she had warned him about her
from the beginning but he wouldn't listen.

Love is blind.
Love is blind.

Her circling swooping eyes on me
her lips and tongue clanging like
a cow bell: you must remember, dear,
don't make decisions with your heart
but with your head -
a clear level head you must keep
at all times. at all times.

That day I decided, with a clear level head,
that I loved her but
despised her meddlesome irritating ways
with all my heart
at all times. at all times.