The Cousin We Feared

She was the cousin we feared There were no consequences She stayed with the grown ups No one sent her away All the other aunts and my own mother Did not send her away She was our spy, Gloating in the knowledge That her own Overly-aggressive mother Dared not try, For she was afraid Of her thirteen-year-old Daughter Luckily, the rest of us Grandchildren Had a much better time without either of them It was not until after we were grown We learned the truth Shocked that Aunt Z, The bossiest of the bosses The oldest in a family of twelve children The one who was the expert in everything else Dared not send her bossy, mean-as-a-snake child out of the grown-up area, for she did not want her siblings to know who was the boss of her