Have you seen, stalking about the convent rose garden,
A hobble-stepping woman clothed in simple skirt and jacket,
A crucifix upon her breast
Hair cut blunt, framing an un-made face?
That would be Sister Mary Ann, who once camouflaged her mean spirit
under the long, black robes and white cowl of a consecrated nun.
Then she was a giver of demerits,
Stalker of students, enforcer of school rules.
Many’s the time she scattered a giggling gaggle of girl-students,
Smoking through a breezy afternoon chatting up the latest gossip.
Oh the demerits she did issue!
Oh the trouble they did suffer!

Where are the convent school girls, Susie, Mara, Katy,
Colleen and Laura,
The feckless student, the downtrodden, the follower-of-leader,
the starlet, the joker?
All, all, are smoking out in the rose garden.

One excelled at sports,
One lost her found faith,
One, tho’ society matron and soccer mom still longed for a mentor,
One lusting for lost beauty succumbed to the surgeon’s scalpel,
One made her vows and lives a life of prayer and teaching –
All, all, are smoking, smoking out in the rose garden.

Where are Sisters Mary Ann, Maria Elena, Christine Alphonse,
Angela Ann, Katherine Louise?
The tormentor of Susie, the critic of Mara, the conscience of Katy,
the grim-reaper of Colleen, the laughing audience of Laura?
All, all, are smoking out in the rose garden.

One was defrocked,
One criticized the bishop,
One abandoned her vows,
One became a hospital social worker,
One found jolly joy where ever she went –
All, all, are smoking, smoking out in the rose garden.