Aunt Tacita

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Her family were very good
At un-naming things
From the accident
The clocks wound back to zero

Packing tape and folded clothes
Lightened shelves and interlopers
Sat awkwardly under the finger-printed plastic sheets
In all the photo albums

The day her name came back to me
On a downtown bus, Miranda Street,
Sun skipping 'cross the rooftops in the spring:
Aunt Tacita, Aunt Tacita
Aunt Tacita
I repeated after me


Aunt Tacita had an illness
That the grownups never named
Wing shadows of a lamp moth
And the tiny sounds they made

She told me once a story
Where giant lizards stared
At a growing shape in the clouds that would bury them
And leave us with their prayers

The day her name came back to me
On a downtown bus, Miranda Street,
Sun skipping 'cross the rooftops in the spring:
Aunt Tacita, Aunt Tacita
Aunt Tacita
I repeated after me

Aunt Tacita had a bag of change
Didn't chink like other coins
She used to trick those tall machines
That gave you candy and little toys

She had a small and strange guitar
And a voice like drifting leaves
And sang me once a far-off song
Seguir viviendo, mi pueblo, vivir

The day her name came back to me
On a downtown bus, Miranda Street,
Sun skipping 'cross the rooftops in the spring:
Aunt Tacita, Aunt Tacita
Aunt Tacita
I repeated after me

~ Brendan Bonsack






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