Writers Abroad Magazine Issue 2 March 2015 | Page 11

WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE

Laundry Lament
A poem by Paola Fornari

Sad Sister Joseph leaned over the suds,
Washing her week's underwear;
“Pants like sails, bras like cranes, dull grey socks”, she complained,
“Oh, why don't the other nuns care?
“I'd so love to feel pretty, wear frills and soft silk,
It would cheer me up no end,” she thought,
“Fine lace see-through knickers, a sheer camisole,
If I dared, though, I'd surely be caught.
But the Lord gave me thighs, and a bottom that's firm,
So really, it cannot be wrong...
Yes! I'll auction my habit and veil on e-Bay,
And buy a Brazilian thong.” WA

The Great Escape
Another poem by Paola Fornari
The homework was done, the Rosary said,
and three hundred girls were all tucked up in bed;
the lights were switched off, the clock chimed half-eight,
Sister Joseph closed shutters and padlocked the gate.
The nuns gathered round the TV to watch footie,
“Come join us!” they called, “Sister Jo! You're off duty!”
But intrepid Jo had concocted a scheme:
tonight was the night she would realise her dream.
For twenty-five years, her life as a nun
had not been exactly a bundle of fun
She slipped through the window, and slid down a tree,
and hitch-hiked to Rio — at last she was free. WA

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