James Tate




Aunt Edna

Aunt Edna of the hills
comes down to give
her sisters chills:

she wears the same
rags she wore
seven years ago,

she smells
the same,  she tells
the same hell-

is-here stories.
She hates flowers,
she hates the glory

of the church she
abandoned for the
glory

of her Ozark cave,
She gave
her sons to the wolves.