Liz Dean
Missing Aunty Just Enough at her Funeral
Our dead Aunty was hefted onto shoulders
till the pall bearers' faces went puce.
Their right arms levered out for balance to make
a perfect scorpion, wooden-bodied, unearthed
just to inch her down the aisle, scurry her to rest.
The service began.
Not only a good friend to many
a bookkeeper to this church, and never
let a gas bill go unpaid
bowled for the village
loved Cliff Richard.
Her son Andy took a while to read the poem she wanted;
a white rag of paper bore the words,
fluttered like a bird trying to escape his damp fingers.
It advised, Miss me a bit,
but not too much.
The man behind us sang the next hymn
in rude loud tenor, with conviction.
After the ladies had cried outside
in the bit of fog we had that morning
Aunty lit up a cigarette.
I didn't think anyone over forty still smoked,
or still smoked over forty a day.
And it was kind of refreshing
that some things hadn't changed,
and everything had been accounted for.
Page(s) 24
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