The Convent
For you both David and
Jim.....
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 yearing and dreaming of technicolour
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
