My Aunt Was a Bookkeeper

My aunt rose loved high heels
even when her feet ached
She smoked Pall Malls
and blew smoke rings
across the room
She loved the track
and won her share of perfectas
She owned a round bed
and a Chinese bureau with
a dragon draped down one side
When she could no longer
remember where to put her laundry
and piled it in her bathtub,
no longer wore her heels
and became lost trying to find
her home she moved
into a nursing home
and then the hospital
On my last visit she took
a lipstick out of her bag
and painted her cheek red
It was those marks
that her friend wiped
off with a Kleenex
that I recall
and the smoke rings
I never caught