Aunt Wilma

when aunt Wilma was
ten years old
she could walk under
the kitchen table
we were told it was because
she had some bone disease
Grandmother Spengler gave birth
twelve times nine survived
all born on their farm
in Northern Ohio
later Wilma moved to the upstairs
of a house in Elmira Ohio
Grandfather Spengler built
when they left the farm
my mother was her sister
my two older sisters Nedra and Janice
and mom and I helped Aunt Wilma clean
her rooms in the house
my mom would carry her full slop jar
down the long stairway
to the outhouse and dump it
us kids would work the pink stuff
like silly putty in our hands to warm it
make a ball of it and rub it over
the wallpaper to clean it
Wilma moved to an old folks home
and is buried at a place called Lauber Hill
near the farm where she was born