Aunt Claudette's Wallpaper

When Aunt Claudette died
and her parlor was empty of playing poker
I took down the wrinkling, yellowed, rose covered  wallpaper
and made a backpack
It smells cloyingly of cigarette smoke and bottled Sherry
(She'd wink at me and say the bottle was only for cooking)

Aunt Claudette wasn't really my aunt
but she'd been in the family for so long, it's just the way it was
Hunkered down for card games and her favorite radio shows,
her stocking always ended up rolled down to her knees

The edges of her wallpaper curled like her stockings
I offered to scrape her walls clean, start anew
She would say thank you and wave off the suggestion with mild irritation
Her wallpaper was stained and curled
Her poker games were on Friday nights and radio just wasn't the same
after they stopped playing "The Shadow"
It's just the way it was

She heart stopped on a rainy Wednesday night
They found her on the cream colored sofa,
stockings askew, her radio in her lap
The ladies and I buried Aunt Claudette that Friday
and all played one last game of poker in her parlor
It's what she would have wanted

When everyone had gone, I took her bottle down
and drank a glass of Sherry
I scraped away the wallpaper until I had enough
I shaped and glued and sewed
and now carry the most god awful bag with me

But it reminds me of Aunt Claudette
and it's so ugly it makes me smile
and that's just the way it is

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