Angela Kirby
R.I. with Sister Bridget, 1943
We’d got to that bit about the four sins
which cry to Heaven for vengeance
so I put up my hand
to ask what it was, exactly,
the Sin of Sodom,
because I’d never heard of it
and really wanted to know
but the minute the words were out
it was clear I’d hit a no-go area -
there was Sister Bridget,
with eyes like gobstoppers, face
red as the fire buckets and for once
not a squeak out of her
until somebody giggled,
then she sucked in her cheeks,
rolled her eyes upwards
as if seeking divine aid
and hissed it was something
so wicked, so terrible,
that nobody knew what it was -
which blew our minds, I mean scary
or what, and after that
she had no more trouble with any of us
but it left me anxious -
next time I went to Confession
I hedged my bets and confessed to it,
whatever it was -
better be safe than sorry.
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