The Convent 
 
 

Navy blazers with badges of Mary's courage
Stitched over each little left breast pocket
Pleated blue and white plaid skirts below the knee
White-socked feet tucked into shiny black oxfords
Laced up tight, tongues tucked in flat; immovable

Walking the wide corridors two by two
Heads rigid but minds raging far and wide
Fed and exhaustible litany of saints and sciences
Stretching imaginations and hidden desires
Begging to break free from walls of rules; irrevocable

Playing and praying with good and bad
Doomed to sisterhood of right or wrong
Black and white were the colours all knew
But yearning and dreaming of Technicolor lives
Off pages worn in silent prayer; irredeemable

Heads bowed, white veils pinned in place
White gloves covering still, clasped hands
Curtseying wide and genuflecting deep
Even those actions measured and judged
These lives decided by every move; irreversible

Neatly packaged convent leavings, draped in white
Dark diplomas strangled by ink-stained fingers
Cast out into adventures, running blind
Learning things that books could never teach
Living and loving life to the fullest; irreplaceable