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Memories of a Catholic school education, the Gestapo of that religion ‘Dominican Nuns’ taught well, but oh so deadly.
penguins
jim greenwald
I remember my
childhood education.
Dressed in formal wear,
they looked like penguins.
Wielders of yardsticks and rulers
made of near unbreakable wood.
Attention getters—embedded
splinters and bloody knuckles.
The nuns entrusted with my early
education.
Baseballs loss—none could throw
a strike like the penguin with
her chalk.
Education by pain—we did learn.
We had to.
No place to hide from their rage.
They stand beside you in the
boy’s room—privacy—there was
none, to nuns on a mission.
Boot camp was a breeze—being
shot at—a break, they did not throw
bullets like the penguins with
their chalk.