These Things Pass

[laltieri0]

These Things Pass
 
My aunt Lottie lived to be one hundred and two,  Lottie! What a great name!
she drank her coffee as watery   
as the eyes of some of her friends, ...this is nice. It both characterizes her friends (and by extension, Lottie herself) as well as the way she takes her coffee (also says a lot about a person)

or the amount of oil to salt water
we were getting when we finally
closed downed the oil leases,  ... clarify this.

precipitating me to leave town and move far away.  "leave town" "and move far away" its a little redundant.  You could be just as clear eliminating "leave town."

The next time I saw her was some years later.

She met me at the door unafraid,
(Thank god they'd taken her guns away)
telling me she knew what I wanted,  I don
and that she was dialing 9-1-1.
She had been my favorite aunt,
my only aunt really.  unnecessary, sounds like a side note. Also, "really" at the end detracts further from an already useless line

She used to come and take me
to the "Corner Drug Store" as everyone else asked, why the quotation marks?
and buy me tuna fish sandwiches  to buy?
on toasted bread and a coke
mixed the old fashioned way,  good
but just like the Easter Bunny,  I don't know if you need "just," also, the Easter Bunny is unclear. Maybe choose a different phase to reference
These Things Pass.  I like this closing line but again...why the caps?
 
erthona
 
©2016

There's some incongruity between the first and second halves of the poem. From "the next time i saw her" on, your tone and style seems to change. Not necessarily a bad thing or a crit, just an opinion.  Overall, it's engaging and a good read. Thanks!