WEBVTT

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Traditionally I read
a boarding school poem

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because I went to a boarding
school in the North Hills

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of Pittsburgh, Vincentian
Academy for Girls,

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with the nuns where I spent four
tortured, and deeply unhappy

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years, but got a lot of
great writing material.

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This is about the spiritual
world versus the secular world,

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and it's called "An
Afternoon in the World."

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An afternoon in the world.

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I remember how the nuns
spit it out, hissing,

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the word 'secular' as Rosie
and I slithered down the hill

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to the shopping mall,
and gorged ourselves

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on candy, hot chocolates,
forbidden movies,

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among soft-lit
carpeted boutiques.

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Escaping evening
Rosary again, we

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descended to North
Hills Shopping Center

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to rise on long,
shining escalators

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into a parade of
costume jewelry, evening

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wear, and perfume atomizers.

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After days of the word
'discipline' and 'spiritual,'

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after the dry prayers
at breakfast, at lunch,

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after choir practice, piano
practice, forced study hall,

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devotions in chapel at
Angelus and Vespers,

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we hurried through squadrons
of clerks into mountains

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of stacked dry goods, draping
paisley shawls and strings

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of pearls over our
dull, gray uniforms.

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Debbing crept to sheen,
canoe, jungle gardenia

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onto our wrists, slipping
into slingback leather pumps

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with stiletto heels, pulling
long, silky nylons and garters

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up our secretly shaved legs.

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Where are you now, Rosie?

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And where are those fuzzy
sweaters, electroplated rings,

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the orange yarn we bought and
spooled around our boyfriend's

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class rings before we
hung them from our necks,

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the bright pink polish
we slathered over them

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in a sticky heap, and the
lipstick with silver flecks

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that tasted of rainwater?

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Where are those tortoiseshell
compacts, the mascara ones,

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as if a wand and a sweater could
turn us into models, and not

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those gray blazered
schoolgirls in Oxford shoes,

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and high socks?

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Running back up
the road, hugging

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paper sacks of
merchandise, running hard

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having stayed too long, running
so as not to miss supper,

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and holding that taste of the
secular beneath our tongues,

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like those bright-colored
candy rings that we favored,

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lemon, watermelon, lime, and
cherry, those Lifesavers.

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