-the Sacred Heart Academy girls-

I was too young

to go to the dance at Club Calumet

but the girls from the Academy
tucked into my sister's bedroom

prepared themselves.

the door was slightly ajar,

never able to fully close

in order to shut me out.

my gait from the kitchen

to the parlor slowed to funeral steps
as I passed the intriguing goings on.

they examined their skin —

pressed the upper eyelashes

with an implement designed

to do nothing else.

they primed their hair

in sprays to hold the hairdo's down.

they dabbed

the backs of their ears

with Wind Song 

and the backs of their knees —

rolled deodorants then sniffed

the hairless armpits to certainty.

they listened to Elvis crooning
from a spinning 45, slipped their legs

into crinoline mesh

after conning the nylons upward

as far as they could go.

earlier, two of them took baths

in the tub, heating the cold porcelain.

later, I could hear them

giggling with anticipation as they ran
through the kitchen door leaving the house.

                                         1017 Bedford